Worlds Within Worlds
by talonislebadev
Summary: After a gun battle in Savannah central leaves several mammals dead strange events start happening across Zootopia and are somehow linked to two previously unknown wolves. What happens in the city turns everything on it's head.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note - This is a complete rewrite of another story by the same name that i made last year, i didn't like what i had done with it as i took it off on a completely unrelated tangent that ruined it as far as i was concerned, so here's the new one.

* * *

Hidden at the base of the mountain on the other side of the lake from cliff side asylum sat a large rusting warehouse that was being slowly reclaimed by nature, thick vines and some of the nearby trees had started to grow over it and help obscure the view of it from the suspended highway that passed by thirty feet above it. No-mammal had bothered with anything in this area for decades after the closing of the asylum, and the warehouse had only been a temporary storage location for the highways construction and once it had been finished it had been left to rot. So the arrival of a large truck and three cars would have stood out to anybody watching, but with it being the dead of night there wasn't anybody around to see the doors to the warehouse open and the vehicles drive in.

The inside of the warehouse looked completely different to the outside, it had been refurbished and reinforced with large metal plates, a small area had been built along one of the walls out of shipping containers and held an office where as the main body of the warehouse had been turned into a drug factory. The vehicles pulled up inside and the occupants got out as several mammals came out of the office. A bull in a plain white shirt and black trousers with a pistol in a belt holster pulled out a cigarette and lit it, a smile spread across his face as he spotted a grey wolf in black cargo trousers and shirt, with a metal mask covering his entire head except for his yellow eyes stood amongst the mammals from the office.

"Unload the cargo" yelled the bull to it's followers as it walked over to the wolf, it's voice boomed and echoed through the warehouse, the warehouse was a flurry of activity as the two headed into the office. The small army of mammals unlocked the trailer door and opened it to reveal large wooden crates, as they got to work unloading them a small trail of blood ran out of the door from the pile of bullet ridden bodies in the back.

The office was plush and had luxury seats, a large wooden desk, filling cabinets and a glass fronted fridge filled with beer. The bull pulled out a beer then went and sat behind the wooden desk, he pulled an ashtray towards him flicking some from the end of his cigarette into it.

"Make yourself comfortable, want a beer?" he offered happily as he cracked his open and took a sip,

"Thank you but no" the wolf sat down on a nearby chair next to a large carry case resembling a doctors bag.

The bull unhooked his holster and put it on the table, undid the button on his collar and rubbed at his neck,

"I have to say Sokolov, when you contacted me about the shipment I was sceptical to say the least. Your information was right on the money tho, I'm surprised the Citadel sent such a lightly guarded convoy with the amount of weapons it was carrying."

"Hiding in plane sight is the best security, who's going to look at a civilian truck and think it contains weapons?"

"Point taken, anyway this should give us the upper paw against the cops for a long time. Now what have you got for me?"

He gestured to the case and the wolf placed it on the desk in front of the bull,

"Half a million dollars, laundered and untraceable as agreed. Once I have the orb in my possession then I will give you the other one million we agreed upon"

"The deal was for one and a half up front, what are you playing at?"

"No offence Mr Stier, but I have a lot ridding on this operation of yours, the rest is stored nearby and as soon as I have the orb you will have your money"

"I don't like it when mammals take it upon themselves to change agreements, but you did provide extra firepower for us so I'll let it go this time"

He picked his beer back up and carried on drinking as he waited for his crew to finish.

Outside the warehouse one of the mammals, a tiger, was relieving himself against a tree. His teeth chattered and he muttered to himself.

"Jesus it's freezing, why do I have to be stuck with patrol"

The thought was quickly replaced with pain as his head slammed into the tree, he felt himself fall backwards with tremendous force to the ground and something press heavily against his throat, he opened his eyes wide as he saw a a brown wolf in a suit and a long black woollen overcoat stood over him with a foot on his throat and a pistol pointed at his head. The wolf's eyes were a solid yellow and he had an angry look on it's face, what scared him most though was that he could see a silver metal collar around his neck with a well know crested lock on the front, if he hadn't already relieved himself he would be now out of fear. The tiger stuttered as it tried to say something. But his fear coupled with the pressure on his throat prevented him from getting any of the words out, the wolf spoke quietly with a gravely voice as he gestured to the warehouse,

"How many?" the wolf released enough pressure for the tiger to talk, the tiger just stared wide eyed at him until the wolf clicked the hammer back on the gun.

"How many?"

"fifteen, there's fifteen inside"

"Is your boss there?"

"Yeah. There's another wolf there as well, with a mask"

"Dark metal?"

"Yeah that's right"

"Thank you"

The wolf lifted his foot up and the tiger breathed a momentary sigh of relief, it was short lived however as the wolf brought it down quickly, snapping the tigers neck, the tiger gurgled as it suffocated. The wolf walked quickly between the trees at the side of the warehouse as he looked for a way in other than the front door, as he passed around a forgotten burnt out car a door that was flush fitted to the wall opened only a few feet in front of him, a warthog with a shotgun slung over his back stepped out trying to light a cigarette. The wolf froze, the warthog had it's back to him and kicked the door closed with the back of his hoof, as soon as the door closed he snuck behind the hog kicking the back of his leg dropping him to one knee, he flicked out his razor sharp claws on his free paw and slashed the hogs throat, the hog grabbed at his throat trying to stem the blood flow and collapsed onto the grass. The wolf held him face down burying his face into the mud until he stopped moving, when he was sure he was dead the wolf took the shotgun from the body and made sure it was loaded. Putting his ear to the door he could hear a lot of movement, but nothing sounded too close, he opened the door just a crack, he could see a bunch of mammals opening up wooden crates and taking weapons cases from inside and stacking them up. Around 80ft away on the opposite side and through the office window he could see his target, Josef Sokolov, sat next to Mr Stier, a well known drugs manufacturer in the underworld who was rumoured to be planning a massive expansion of his operations, the police knew about his operations but due to large scale corruption he had mainly gone unchecked. A bear who was pulling items out of the crates picked up a smaller case the size of a first aid box and took it to the office.

There was a knock on the door and Stier called for the mammal to enter, even his normal voice was loud and echoed around the metal walls of the office. The door opened and a bear ducked under the door-frame and walked over to the desk, placing the small case he was carrying onto it. Stier looked at the top of it and turned it to face Sokolov,

"This what you are after?"

Sokolov walked over and flicked the case open, inside was a a red spherical jewel the size of a grapefruit with intricate golden inscriptions and symbols all over it, he picked it out and it glowed slightly in his paw.

"This is exactly what I want"

"I'd ask what's with the glowing shit but I don't want to know, you Thihir creep me out sometimes. Now where's the rest of the money?"

Sokolov laid the sphere back into it's case and sealed it.

"Against the side of this warehouse, along the grass, is a burned out car. The case with the rest of your money in is in the boot" He took a key out of his pocket and placed it on the desk in front of the bull "You'll need that to open the case"

Stier picked it up and turned it around in his hoofs a few times before calling over to the bear,

"You heard him, go get the case"

The brown wolf watched the crew through the door, he knew Stier's crew had a reputation for brutality and loyalty, but if he could take out the ones who had more authority then he might be able to make them stop or at the least demoralize them enough to leave, but he saw the large bear come out of the office and start walking towards him. He hoped the bear would go back to one of the crates but it quickly became apparent that he wasn't going to, with few options he decided it didn't matter if they died and he kicked the door inwards just as the bear went for the handle. The force of the door hitting the bear in the nose stunned it, reflexively it brought it's paws up to cover it and the wolf seized the opportunity, shooting it with the shotgun point blank in the stomach blowing a large chunk out of the bear. The wolf racked the slide as he stepped into the warehouse and fired at a nearby moose holding an assault rifle hitting it square in the chest, sending blood splattering across the room and the moose into a lion stood next to it knocking him to the ground. A shot rang out and hit the wolf in the shoulder but the round didn't break through his shirt, he turned and fired back at the coyote who was stood behind one of the cars, the round shattered the window and shredded the coyotes jaw.

The entire warehouse descended into chaos with Stier's crew firing madly at the wolf who didn't seem to notice, even when his white shirt was stained with his own blood he didn't show any sign of slowing down as he killed mammal after mammal, drawing his own gun when the shotgun ran out of shells.

Inside the office Stier pulled the front off one of his cabinets and fumbled with a set of keys, after he had seen who was attacking them, as he tried to unlock the gun-safe he had hidden in the cabinet.

"What the hell have you done Sokolov, you brought a Seeker down on us!"

Stier turned around with a shotgun and a box of shells, but fell back into his chair as two bullets pierced his chest, one grazing his heart. The bull struggled to breath as Sokolov clicked open the case, his smoking pistol in his paw.

"You attacked the convoy, what did you think the Citadel would do"

He took the Jewel out of the case and whispered something that Stier couldn't understand. The door to the office flung open and the wolf charged in with his gun raised ready to fire at Sokolov just as the jewel emitted a blinding flash of white light engulfing everything in the building.

Nick and Judy were in their unmarked police cruiser on their way back to Precinct One for the shift change after a long shift. Although being detectives usually gave them the opportunity to wear their civilian clothes for the day to day investigations they were now on the last day of the mandatory patrol rotation that all detectives had to follow at Precinct One every three years in order for them to not loose their street wits. It wasn't a bad thing that they had to wear uniform, except that the giant heat wall surrounding Savannah Central, where they had been patrolling, was malfunctioning and had increased the temperature significantly and their uniforms were just far too hot for their liking. They both had their ZPD jackets off and Nick was fanning himself with the first aid manual from the glove box,

"Carrots, what's say you and I head to Tundratown? I'll even buy us some ice cream"

Judy was keeping herself as close to the air-vent as possible, as she was designated driver she didn't have any paws free to fan herself.

"I'll snap up any offer when you're paying"

"How long can it take to fix that stupid wall"

"I don't know, but it cant be done quick enough"

They could make out the Precinct in the distance as they sat waiting for the traffic signal to change,

"Not long now slick"

Just then the radio burst into life with Clawhauser's voice filled with urgency,

"All units Officer down Palm and Dune, Ten David is under fire, all units respond"

Nick swore under his breath, dropped the manual on the floor and hit the lights and sirens as Judy spun the car round and sped through the rush hour traffic.

"That's Fangmeyer's car, how far away are we?"

"About 4 minutes"

Nick grabbed the radio,

"Ten David what's going on?"

"Multiple suspects along 12th avenue junction exit, combat gear and heavily armed. Delgato's been hit" The sounds of automatic fire crackled over the radio along with pinging noises, the slower sound of a pistol being fired mixed in with it "We really need help guys!"

"We're four minutes out hold on"

It didn't take long for them to hear the gunfire as well as the sirens of closer units who had already arrived. Sliding around the corner they were forced to a stop by traffic that hadn't been able to get away from the junction, the mammals having abandoned their vehicles and run for whatever cover was available, some didn't make it however and a number of bodies could be seen lying on the pavement and between cars riddled with bullets. Nick used his radio as they ran to a car closer to the gunfight,

"Dispatch, multiple inured and dead mammals, get TUSK down here now!"

He ducked down next to Judy as a spray of bullets from a polar bear wielding an assault rifle shredded the windscreen and hood of the car. From where they were crouched they could see Fangmeyer behind his cruiser with Delgato, Delgato was slumped against the car and Fangmeyer had one blood stained paw against the lions neck and the other on his gun, the tiger looked terrified, Judy yelled over the gunshots,

"Fangmeyer. Fangmeyer!" He turned his head to look at her "Stay down. TUSK's on it's way!"

"We'll cover you, keep him alive"

Nick and Judy fired from behind the car at a pig that was trying to get the drop on the tiger, the pig ducked behind a box delivery van parked outside a flower store as a polar bear fired on the car Nick and Judy were hiding behind, showering shards of glass down on them making them duck, Fangmeyer fired in it's direction, his panic causing him to completely miss, the slide on his gun locked back as he fired the last of his bullets. Nick and Judy watched unable to move from their cover as the pig came out from behind the van to finish what it had started. Just as it was about to fire a suit wearing wolf came running out of the alley behind it and barged it into the van making it drop it's rifle. The wolf grabbed the pig by the throat and slammed it's head into the van dazing it, he spun the pig round, grabbed it's neck under his arm and yanked it up snapping it cleanly. The wolf grabbed the rifle and dashed behind the cruiser, a Yak from Stier's crew fired from behind a mail box, the rounds missing the wolf by a few inches and snapping over Nick and Judy's head. The wolf shoved the rifle into Fangmeyer's paws as Nick and Judy dashed between cars to get to them, the wolf held Delgato's badly injured neck with one paw and pulled a spray can out of his coat pocket as more bullets pinged into the car,

"Keep that Yak's head down"

The wolf put the can against the wound and sprayed a thick green foam over it, the foam began to dry quickly and the wound stopped bleeding, they weren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and Fangmeyer started firing over the hood of the cruiser, his shots were inaccurate but it did the job as the yak kept himself as low as possible. Judy grabbed the wolfs arm,

"Who are you?"

"Max, look we can talk after this is done, I'm going after the bear keep that yak off me"

Before they could protest he drew his pistol and ran at the bear firing as he ran, Nick quickly yelled over the radio to the other officers not to shoot at the wolf, he hopped he was making the right decision.

Max ran as fast as he could at the bear as he fired at it, he slid across the hood of the last car separating them as the last of his bullets caught the bear in the arm causing him to drop the rifle, Max swung at him with his claws but the bear's swing caught him first, hitting him square in the chest and sending him flying into the cars rear passenger door buckling it, the force knocked the wind out of him and it felt like one of his ribs was broken, he didn't have time to think about it as the bear dashed at him and swung for his head with his claws, Max pushed against the car and kicked the bears left knee making him fall head first into the car knocking out a few of it's teeth, Max climbed onto it's back and punched it in the kidneys again and again, the pain made it difficult for the bear to get up. Fangmeyer Nick and Judy kept firing at the yak until the rifle clicked,

"Shit I'm out"

"I'm on my last mag, Carrots?"

"I'm out too"

Nick fired three more shots and the slide of his gun locked back,

"Fuck I'm out"

Max grabbed the polar bear's head and slammed it into the ground, pulled his backup gun from under his coat and shot the bear in the head twice, he could hear Nick and Judy yelling his name and he turned to see the yak fire at him, he felt a sharp pain just below his neck and he fell to the ground, his vision blurred and went black.


	2. Chapter 2

In a secluded location somewhere in Zootopia a group of mammals were meeting in secret, they sat around a large table that was covered in documents that had been hastily assembled in the aftermath of the attack on the intersection five days ago. Behind them was a large television with a live feed into a private hospital room, the room was plain but the hidden camera mounted in the ceiling was focused on a brown wolf in blue patients clothing, who was sat motionless on a chair staring out of the window overlooking the busy streets of the city.

A lion in a blue suit finished looking over the last page of the document he was holding, held it just above the table and let it flop onto the wooden surface. He stared across the table at a black suited grey rabbit with blackened tips on his ears as it lit a cigarette,

"I've read through all of these documents now, and I have an opinion on what we should do, however I want to hear our available options. Director Savage I know that look, so lets hear it"

The rabbit took a drag from the cigarette and breathed the smoke out of his nose, he laid the cigarette on an ashtray and picked up another document that had a picture of Josef Sokolov taken from a CCTV camera the moment he shot a civilian, who had stopped it's car, in the head.

"I think we should use him."

"Just like that?"

"Yes. At least two of the ZPD's officers owe their lives to him, and I'm sure more civilians as well as officers would be dead or injured if it wasn't for him. Now we aren't sure yet as to why he has a grudge against these other creatures that appeared at the same time, but as long as he does so we need to utilize that, we have no idea where this masked one is or the crew that escaped with him. Max might be able to help us find them."

A female badger, in a dark grey suit that had an obvious weapon bulge under it, interrupted as she pushed the document in front of her to the centre of the table,

"What makes you say that? We've had every agency searching for them for the last five days and not a single trace of them has showed up since we found the getaway vehicle"

"I think he can help because he ran ten city blocks through a maze of alleys and side-streets to intercept them. The CCTV shows him clear as day, he seems to have a knack for this and right now I think we need to use that before anything else happens. So long as they are out there uncounted for we have no idea what they are up to, I don't like being left in the dark when innocent mammals are at risk."

A tiger with a large scar on it's face, who was staring at the TV questioned,

"There's only three options really Mayor Lionheart. Contain it, kill it, or as Director Savage suggested, use it. Personally I'm interested to see what would happen with using it, I suppose you have a plan as to how exactly we keep it on our side Savage?"

"I do, everyone has a week spot, family, money, things like that. We find out it's weakness and exploit it."

"What if it doesn't have a weakness?"

"Everyone does, if they haven't buckled then you haven't offered the right incentive. It's the same thing we do when turning informants or spies"

Mayor Lionheart clasped his paws together and placed them on his lap as he leant back in his chair,

"Alright, say he has a weakness that we can control, what do you propose?"

"This"

He took a folder out of a briefcase next to him and handed it over to Lionheart, he took out a pair of glasses and took a few minutes to read it, he looked over the top of the document at the rabbit.

"You want to establish a new section?"

"Yes, it will still be under the auspice of the ZBI but it will be made up only of those who have been privy to the events so far. Thanks to Miss Bane" He gestured to a pale coloured wolf in a dark brown suit who was sat opposite him "we have control of the media, nothing related to the true nature of the section or of the event will be disclosed to the public. Instead it will appear as a new counter terrorism organisation, it will require us to be able to conduct our business without interference from other agencies, especially the police, so it will need to have the same ultra violet security clearance as our other clandestine sections."

"You want an alien to have one of our highest security clearances? I didn't think you would suggest something so risky Savage"

"Max wont have the clearance, he will be assisting us in our investigations, nothing more, and he will be accompanied at all times"

"You've chosen a shadow?"

"Yes agent Claire Schwartzpelz. She has extensive experience as a shadow, and has an excellent track record as well, she is one of our most capable agents"

A horse at one end of the table snorted, unlike the others it was informally dressed and was wearing a pair of jeans, a plain black t-shirt and a scuffed up jacket.

"You really think you can control something like that with a shadow agent and promises?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

Lionheart interjected,

"This is Mr Church, he's with another agency"

"No title eh? I'm guessing you're with the Federal Government."

"That's right. Higher authority has decided that we should try for a peaceful approach, but if things start going downhill I'll be stepping in and making sure this doesn't fuck up the country"

"Well until that time can you keep you're interference to a minimum. Where was I? I have an idea on what we can do to keep it on side. Will you authorize the section Mr Mayor?"

"I'll Authorise it, but I want to be kept in the loop at all times. How soon can you have it up and running?"

"It already is, for obvious reasons I couldn't wait for your permission, but this will make it official"

"You and I need a word about how often you do that. Right now how many mammals know of what's happened?"

"Outside of this room a total of a hundred and fifty five, split between our various agencies, that includes the medical staff that treated him and first responders on the scene"

"Can we guarantee their cooperation?"

"I believe so, everyone seems to have a grasp of the seriousness of the situation. However as a precaution we've bugged their phones, cells and homes. If there is a leek from one of them we'll be able to plug it before it gets to the media"

"Good, noone else knows until we have a handle on this."

Miss Bane interjected,

"There may be a problem with that. We have agents in place at every major media corporation in the city, we are also listening in on many of the smaller groups as well. Our only concern is from any independent reporters that may get wind of a cover up, there are far too many for us to track and there are a lot of self styled investigators that will look at something like this with a lot of interest."

"Once we've finished the monitoring station we'll be able to listen in to whatever line we like but that leaves us exposed and at risk until at least the end of the month."

"We'll just have to do what we can for now, I don't want to bring in any more mammals than we already have."

"Savage have your agents interviewed it yet?"

"No, it was confused when it woke up from the surgery and was reluctant to believe that it was no longer where it had come from"

"We're still trying to establish where that is exactly" Interrupted a red fox vixen,

"As I was saying, we used detectives Hopps and Wilde as mediators as they were the first mammals to talk to it by all accounts"

"Wasn't there another officer? Fangmeyer was it?"

"We spoke to him as well but we decided against using him, he's suffering from Post Trauma and wouldn't be a good choice, I know Hopps and Wilde personally as do you Mr Mayor, they are good officers and are tougher than most give them credit for. After it was shown the evidence it asked for some privacy, it's been sat there ever since"

"How long has it been sat there?"

"Just over two hours"

The badger taped the table with a pen,

"Not to be a naysayer here but what happens if it does turn against us? You've seen the medical reports right? This thing is built like a tank, by all accounts that bullet wound to it's neck should have killed it outright yet it's still alive, not only that but it's almost healed already. Plus it's skeletal structure fully encases it's vital organs, how do you stop something like that if it comes to it?"

"A bullet to the head should kill it"

"What if it doesn't? If it gets away it could disappear like the others"

Mayor Lionheart swung his chair around and stared at the television, he took off his glasses and placed them on the table as he ran his paw through his mane and scratched at his neck.

"Alright, I want you to work on a contingency plan, Mr Church will you help him?"

"I'll see what I can do"

Lionheart turned to the vixen,

"Now Doctor Rougepont, I believe you said you before the meeting that you had an update on that theory of yours. Care to tell us now?"

"As you are aware we have been having intermittent power drops in the cities electrical grid over the past twelve months, most have gone unnoticed by the public except for the blackout last month. The power companies believed it was a system error, faulty wiring or similar. However no damage was ever found where the drops in the grid occurred. There was another drop five days ago, in the same area and time as our visitors arrived. It is our theory that they have either been here before or they have tried to get here before, although the method by which they did this is still unknown"

The room went silent as they thought about the implication of what she had said, after a minute Mayor Lionheart spoke calmly and drew everyone attention.

"For now lets get this done. Get to work"

A black bear opened a large metal door for Savage and he headed out into the street, it was starting to get dark as he spotted a large black SUV parked opposite him. He nodded at the bear who closed the door behind him, the building that he had exited from looked just like any other of the run down brick buildings in this neighbourhood and the residence paid no attention to the coming and going of those around them. It had taken him around ten minutes to walk through the underground tunnels left over from the cold war that were scattered throughout the city linking many old bunkers together, some of which including the one he had just come from were used by the government for clandestine operations and safe houses during emergencies. Although they had mostly been abandoned or shut down in order to save money he had a feeling that they would soon be brought back to life with what the city was now facing.

He waited until the road was clear and headed over to the SUV, a pantheress in a charcoal pant suit got out of the driver side and opened the door for him and he hoped inside. When they were both in Savage lit another cigarette and the SUV pulled away,

"Claire, were you listening in?"

"Yes Jack, I got the feed from your camera as well, everything's been recorded."

"Good. I think most of them will keep to their tasks but I don't like this Mr Church"

"Want us to run a check on him?"

"You can try, but I get the feeling you wont find anything interesting"

"So what now?"

"Take me to the hospital, I think it's time I had a chat with our guest"

The white washed hospital room was quiet, only the sound of Max's slow breathing could be heard as he sat in the almost empty room watching the city full of mammals go about their lives. The city looked familiar in some ways but it was very alien in others, it seemed more lively than the city back home that he had tracked Sokolov through. He looked down at his paws and sighed, he had felt dazed when he had woken up and had not fully come around when the two detectives, that he had met under difficult circumstances, had approached him and told him that they knew that he was an alien. He thought that they had been joking and had been trying to lighten the situation with a strange joke, he had denied the claim half heartedly, but they were persistent and started showing him CCTV footage to prove their point, he had become angry and had lifted the fox off the floor by his shirt collar as he yelled at it. Government looking mammals in suits had come into the room to intervene, but the small rabbit that had come in with the fox had talked him into letting him go. After everything had calmed down he had asked for some time to think and process the information, he tried to contact other members of his order but he couldn't find any trace of them, nor could he find any traces of the Baroness. The more he searched for them in his trance the more he realised that what they had shown him was the truth, but he didn't know what to think of it, he had a job to do, but he didn't know anything about this new world, how it worked or how he would manage. The door to the room opened and Max could hear quiet footsteps behind him, they weren't sneaking up on him but they had no claws, he looked over his shoulder and saw a grey rabbit in a black suit walk up and stand next to him, it pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered him one,

"Care for a smoke?"

"I don't smoke"

"Suit yourself." The rabbit took one out with his mouth and lit it. He looked Max over, up close he looked more intimidating than the photos suggested, what would be the whites of his eyes were instead a dull yellow and his pupils were large with no iris colour visible, it certainly set him apart from other mammals, that and the metal collar around his neck that they couldn't remove no matter how hard they had tried while he was unconscious.

"I hear there was an altercation between you and Nick earlier"

"I regret that, I was a little hot headed"

"Is it going to be a regular occurrence?"

"No, not unless you make an issue of it"

"Fair enough."

"So what happens now?"

"That depends, I believe that you and I can make a deal"

A few hours later under the cover of darkness two large black SUVs pulled into the parking lot of a large stone building and parked amongst a number of other vehicles. The building was covered in vines and looked like it hadn't been used for decades, most of the windows were smashed and there were no lights visible. The occupants of the vehicles got out and headed to the small set of steps leading up to a set of large wooden double doors, Max and Savage were among the group of six mammals, all of whom were in dark suits and ear pieces, Max had his clothes returned to him in the hospital after his lengthy discussion with Savage, it felt good to not be wearing the itchy hospital garb any more, and at the suggestion of Savage he now had a pair of sunglasses to hide his unusual eye colour while they were in public, along with a new shirt to replace the one that was riddled with bullet holes. As they passed under the stone awning that protected the doorway from the rain Max spotted a large cat patrolling the roof with a rifle held in it's paws. One of the group opened the doors for them and they headed inside, the building was tall and spacious with enough headroom for a giraffe to walk tall without worry of banging it's head. The paint on the walls was pealing and there was a definite smell of rotting wood, it was easy to see patches of flooring that was collapsing from water exposure.

"What is this place?"

"An old academy that was abandoned in the sixties, since then it's been mothballed and is used as a black site from time to time. It's out of sight from the public so for now it's our base of operations."

The sound of claws against the wooden floor could be heard coming towards them from further down the hall and Claire walked round the corner and over to them.

"Director Savage everything has been set up as you asked sir"

"Good, Max this is Agent Claire Schwartzpelz, she will be your point of contact for us"

She offered her paw and he shook it, she had a firm grip and looked him in the eye's, something that most mammals so far were unable to do.

"Nice to meet you agent"

"Likewise, I understand that you've agreed to work with us."

"We have a mutual enemy, better to work together than in opposition"

"Well I hope that we can see eye to eye."

"Max could you go with my agents a minute, they'll take you to meet the rest of the team, I want a word with Claire"

Max gave them a nod and followed the group deeper into the academy, when they were out of sight Claire turned to Savage.

"How did you get him to work with us Jack?"

"That's between me and Max. I want you to keep a close eye on him, for now we'll all be staying here in the barracks so he's contained, but if we need to go out to the field.."

"I know the drill Jack, this isn't my first shadowing"

"I'm just making sure you understand the risks we are taking here"

"I do understand, just leave it to me"


	3. Chapter 3

At the heart of the academy was a massive hall that used to be the sports and assembly hall, now it was filled with around fifty mammals from the ZPD, ZBI and other alphabet agencies. Makeshift office areas had been set up with a different section for each agency, a large section of the room had been dedicated for the storage of evidence and there were two cars that had been recovered from the intersection attack that were being examined by a forensics team. A mobile command vehicle was parked next to the roller-shutter doors that lead to the parking lot, inside the truck a team of IT specialists were hard at work gathering CCTV data from across the city and making sure that no information made it out into the public domain, the entire hall was filled with the droning of mammals who were trying to play catchup.

In the section dedicated for the ZPD Snarlov and Wolford, both of whom were the first officers to provide backup for Fangmeyer and Delgato, were looking over some of the weapons recovered from the attackers while Judy was sat at a desk staring at a computer screen. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she almost jumped out of her skin when Nick picked her up with one arm and sat on her chair, placing her onto his lap and resting his head between her ears,

"Jesus Nick you nearly gave me a heart attack"

"Sorry, thought you might of heard me."

"Well you certainly woke me up, where have you been?"

"Had to help some of the ZBI with their street contacts, and to get this"

He brought his other hand up in front of them and it had a small white card box, she looked at him curiously and took it carefully from him before opening it up. Inside was a large cupcake with orange frosting and a red candy heart on the top.

"Happy anniversary carrots, another anniversary that we're working, but it doesn't mean that I can't spoil you"

"Aww, thank you Nick"

She gave him a kiss under his chin and he winced, she gave him a concerned look.

"Your neck still hurts?"

"It's just a little tender, that guy has a hell of a vice like grip"

"We probably could have handled it better"

"Probably, but what is done is done. What you been looking at?"

"The IT guys put together all the CCTV our visitors arriving"

The monitor was split into sixteen different windows, each showing a different location, some being in streets, others in alleys and one in a park. Judy moved the mouse and pressed play as she began munching on the cupcake. On all of the windows the lighting dimmed and static spread across them, a white flash lit the windows up before they returned to normal, but each window had a new addition, in each of them there was at least one mammal who wasn't there previously, many of them were injured or dead but those of them that weren't ran off the camera. Nick pointed to one on the bottom row.

"Can you play just that one?"

"Sure"

She clicked a few times and the one he had been pointing at filled the screen. It was the one from the park. It showed a wolf in a suit stood next to a jackal lying on the floor in a tracksuit, it had a rifle next to it within arms reach.

"Isn't that our guest from the hospital, what was his name, Max?"

Judy hummed in agreement as she had a mouthful of cake, she played the video from the start. The lights dimmed again and the screen filled with static, once the flash had happened and the light cleared the two mammals appeared next to the large pond in the middle of the park. Max spun around confused before noticing the jackal who was reaching for the rifle, Max raised his gun and fired three times into it before seeming to notice something and charging off the screen. Nick rubbed at his neck,

"He doesn't hesitate, I'm glad he didn't go any further at the hospital"

They heard Snarlov call them and saw him pointing over to the hall entrance, walking into the room was Max accompanied by four ZBI agents. The whole room went quiet as everyone noticed him, there was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments before Claire and Jack entered the room as well. Claire almost sounded like a drill instructor as she yelled out to everyone,

"Listen up, this is our guest Maxwell Langdon, he is here to assist us in this investigation so I want your full cooperation with him and he will offer his to you, you will treat him as one of us, do you understand?"

There was a momentary pause and a few reluctant agreements before everyone accepted the order. She softened her tone and continued,

"Good, I know you are all working hard here with what little resources we have at the moment but we will be moving to a new facility within a few days. I need everybody's A game. Carry on"

Jack spotted Nick and Judy and pointed at them then beckoned them over with a finger. Nick and Judy got up form their desk and followed Jack, Claire and Max into a side room that served as Jacks office. The office was sparse and had just a desk with a computer, phone and a filling cabinet, it looked like it used to be the P.E. staff room and it had peeling paint on the walls. Jack sat down and lit a cigarette, he coughed a few times on the first drag but quickly composed himself,

"Nick, Judy I've had word from Chief Bogo he's got your children to Bunny-burrow safely, their staying with your parents Judy"

"Thank you Jack"

"Don't mention it, I would rather have you working without worrying about them. Now to the business at paw, I'm putting the four of you together as my go to unit, you two have invaluable street knowledge and Claire can bring in any agency assistance you need. As for Max we have come to an agreement, he will trust us on matters regarding our world and we will trust him on matters regarding his. Any objections?"

"No sir"

"Good. Max I'm processing the information you gave me earlier and I'll have it distributed within a few hours, for now though please tell them what you told me"

"The masked mammal we are after is Joseph Sokolov, he's a former Seeker like me but he turned traitor and began launching attacks against the government and my order. The day before our arrival he attacked an unmarked convoy transporting weapons and an artefact, a red orb. It's nature is classified and I didn't have access to the information, however when I attacked the group he had hired to steal the orb he activated it which transported us here. As long as it's in his position there is the possibility that he can bring in more mammals sympathetic to his cause."

"Needless to say it's a priority that we recover this orb and neutralise Sokolov as soon as possible, I need the four of you to work together on this to the exclusion of everything else."

Nick rubbed his paw over his head,

"I'm all for finding this guy, but where do we start? We have lots of questions with no answers"

"The bodies of the attackers, I need to look at them"

Claire had a puzzled look,

"What for?"

"I recognise two of the attackers at the intersection, the pig and the yak, from the warehouse they were hiding in, the bear wasn't in the warehouse however. I have a feeling it's from this world and that Sokolov turned it"

"How will looking at it's body tell you that?

"Trust me in affairs from my world, remember?"

Jack started coughing hard, Claire went to move over to him but he waved his paw at her to make her stop, he shook his head hard and spat something into a handkerchief.

"You don't sound too good Jack"

"I'm fine. Take him to the morgue, I'll call doctor Clawhauser and let her know you're on your way"

* * *

The four of them were sat in Claire's black unmarked agency cruiser as she drove them through the almost empty streets towards the Morgue, usual y it would take them almost an hour to get to it but with only the occasional car on the road they were making far better time. As Claire manoeuvred the car around one of the ZPD's anti drink driving checkpoints, that they spread around the city on weekends, Judy looked at Max through the rear view mirror,

"Max, I got a question"

"If it's about how I'm going to track them it will be easier to show you than explain"

"It's not that. Why does Sokolov wear a mask? I mean if he looks anything like you without it then he would blend in much easier without it"

"He can't remove the mask"

"Can't?"

"Well, he can take it off but he would probably die within a few minutes. He doesn't have a lower jaw, that mask keeps him from choking, it also gives him a nasty bite that you don't want to experience believe me"

"Did he get injured on duty? Is that why he turned traitor?"

"No, the reason he has the mask is because I shot him the last time I faced off with him, hit him in the face with a shotgun shell, thought I'd killed him but that obviously wasn't true"

There was a moment of quiet in the car, only the humming of the engine and the background chatter of the CB radio was heard until Nick carried on from Judy,

"So why did he turn against you?"

"I don't know, we both worked as Seekers for years, he trained me and we even worked together on occasion. All I know is one day he barged unannounced into the chamber of our ruling council while it was in session, he was ranting and raving about something and he injured a guard who tried to remove him. Next thing I know I come into the office and find that he's been removed from his position and exiled from the capital which is where we were based. Publicly he was removed for health reasons, the council claimed it was PTSD. Anyway it was quiet for a few months, then he we started hearing reports of attacks on convoys, small outposts, things like that. It quickly escalated to bombings and gun attacks on the streets across the country, we eventually linked it back to him, because I know a lot about how he operates the Council tasked me with bringing him down"

"So how are we going to do it?"

"With difficulty, he's very smart and experienced. A Seeker is tasked with protecting our world against forces that normal mammals have little hope of dealing with, there is another world that exists parallel to mine that is inhabited by nightmarish beings called Thirin, I described some of these to Jack and Claire on the way to the academy and they say your closest thing would be a demon or an evil spirit. These creatures cross over through cracks in the boundaries between our world and they have no other desire than to kill our kind. Seekers are the front-line defence against these creatures, we usually work alone and that moulds us, makes us adaptive to situations. Sokolov may not be from this world but he will easily be lost in the crowd, even with that mask of his, we have our work cut out for us"

"Demons, evil spirits? What the fuck"

"I know it sounds unbelievable, but us dropping out of the sky was also unbelievable until a few days ago. This is why showing you how I can track him rather than explaining it will make it easier for you to grasp."

"Okay. So lets say for a minute I understood what you just said, which I'm not so sure I do, does that mean these Thirin are here as well?"

"Maybe?"

"What?!"

Claire interrupted again, Nick and Judy had a look that she didn't like to see, she needed to drill into them why what they were doing was important,

"This is why Jack has agreed to trust Max, if what he says is true then we can't afford to run the risk of ignoring it. Do you two understand?"

"Wha.."

"Do you understand?"

Nick and Judy looked at each other for a moment, as if they were able to read each others minds, before Judy turned to Claire and nodded.

"I'm glad, we're almost there, remember not all the staff here are aware of what's going on, so don't discuss anything about this until we get to the lower levels where they're storing the incident bodies. Oh and I apologise in advance for anything the doctor does Max"

He expected to see an apologetic look on her face after hearing that but instead he saw one of mirth.

 _I don't like this._

* * *

AN - This is a slightly shorter chapter as i haven't had much time to work on it due to work. Chapter may come out once every two weeks instead of once a week as i had planned but i will try and increase the length of the chapter to compensate, let me know what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

It was just gone two in the morning when Claire pulled the cruiser into the parking lot of the Tundratown morgue and parked close to the entrance as it was starting to rain. There were only a small number of cars in the lot, but off to the drivers side was a small blue two seater sports car, Claire turned the engine off and turned to look at everyone,

"The doctors already here, that's her car over there. Remember only the staff in the lower levels know what's really going on, so don't discuss anything about it till we're down there"

Max looked up at the poorly lit building, it was nondescript, made of limestone and was two storeys tall with many of it's windows bordered up,

"Don't worry, I understand the need for secrecy. Before we go in is there anything I need to know about this doctor Clawhauser?"

"She's the agencies chief science officer, when you first arrived it was her who assessed you, she's a bit eccentric so may pester you but she doesn't mean any harm by anything that she does."

"I'm not sure whether to be scared or not"

Claire smirked,

"You'll just have to see wont you. Come on lets head in before the rain gets any worse"

They dashed the twenty feet from the cruiser to the front door as the sky opened up and torrential rain hammered down, with the freezing air being produced by the district temperature walls it was turning to sleet and hail and it was cold enough to get through their fur. The inside of the building gave little respite, the bare cracking concrete floors and walls gave no insulation against the weather and all four of them were blowing mist as they breathed. A lone polar bear guard was sat at a desk that was built for a mammal maybe half his size, he looked bored as he stared at a computer monitor and lazily looked up as the four of them made to walk past him,

"Excuse me"

They slowed down and Claire gave him her attention,

"Yes?"

He pushed an open book across the desk towards her, it was open and had a pen rested in the crease between the pages.

"You have to sign in"

Claire sighed, she could be doing without an interruptions but it was better not to raise suspicion more than necessary, four mammals turning up in the early hours of the morning was bad enough let alone if they caused a scene, she took the pen and started to fill in the visitors log. Nick was scrolling through his phone with a bored look on his face, the faint sound of a game could be heard in the background and Judy was staring at him with a displeased look on her face. Max checked the watch on his wrist, a lot had happened in the last few hours and some of it was still registering with him. His ears twitched as he heard something, it sounded distant and almost sounded like whispering, he turned his head to look down the corridor in the direction he thought it had come from but there was noone there. His attention was turned to someone taping his arm, he turned his head to see Claire stood next to him with Nick and Judy stood behind her, he looked confused at her for a moment and looked back down the corridor,

"You okay Max?"

"Yeah...It's nothing. We good to go?"

"Yup, the docs waiting for us, she's been here for about thirty minutes according to the log, it's this way"

She lead them down the corridor that he heard the whispering from, as they walked he kept an eye out but couldn't see anything seemingly unusual and just put it down to a lack of sleep. Claire called an elevator up for them, once inside she swiped her ID against a sensor and pressed for the second basement, the elevator shuddered for a moment then began to move smoothly,

"This building doesn't seem to be in very good shape, nor did the academy. I thought you agency types would have gone for something more modern, or at the very least not crumbling."

"Don't let the appearance fool you, the building above us may be old but everything down here is brand new and purpose built. The old look helps keep prying eyes at bay, shiny glass and steel buildings tend to attract unnecessary attention."

"I'll give you that one."

He heard the whispering again, a drawn out female voice that wavered and sounded very distant, it sounded like it was coming from around him and made him feel uncomfortable.

"Only agency staff have access to this place?"

"Yes, specially assigned mammals like Nick and Judy here can enter but only if accompanied by ZBI personnel. Above ground is for city use, down here is all for us, we wont be disturbed and you don't have to watch out for anyone listening in on us" 

* * *

The elevator doors opened with a ping and revealed a large room filled with computers and test machines that looked like they belonged in a hospital, there was a constant humming of motors coming from a few of them and the monitors were covered in graphs and readouts from the various machines, Max was impressed with the vast contrast to the decrepit structure above them.

"If this doesn't scream government lab I don't know what does, how longs this been down here"

A female voice from one of the side rooms called out,

"Two years"

From the side room walked a slender female cheetah in jeans, black t-shirt and a doctors overcoat, the fur on the top of her head was shaved on one side and the rest of it was geld and dyed blue. She was carrying a large file under her arm and handed it to Claire when she reached the group, she bent down and scooped up Nick and Judy in her arms and gave them a tight hug.

"I haven't seen you guys in ages, we really need to go on another night out sometime soon"

Nicks eyes were wide and he was franticly tapping her arm,

"Vicki...can't breathe.."

She released them and apologised, Claire cleared her throat and got Vicki's attention,

"Doctor Clawhauser, our guest needs to check one of the bodies from the incident, the bear from the intersection to be precise"

"Yes Jack called ahead, it's still in the chamber so everything should be good to go"

She spun on her heel and outstretched her paw to Max,

"I'm Victoria Clawhauser but everyone calls me Vicki, except for her"

She pointed her other thumb over her shoulder at Claire, Max was slightly taken aback and it took a moment before he shook her paw, her grip was far firmer than he was expecting from a mammal her size.

"Max Langdon, Just call me Max"

"Will do, I have so many questions that I want to ask you, but we can get to that later you came here for a reason so lets get that sorted, oh shit I forgot my keycard in the office be back in a moment"

She dashed back into the room she had come from and the door closed behind her, Max looked at the rest of them dumbfounded,

"That's your head science officer?!"

"Yup, I told you she was a goofy, don't let her behaviour fool you she is an exceptional scientist. She's been badgering Jack for an opportunity to talk to you since you were admitted to the hospital, so be prepared"

"I really don't like the sound of that"

Vicki's office door opened up a moment later and she walked across the room calling over for them to follow her, she swiped her keycard at a set of double doors that opened into a long corridor that was lined with vents. Vicki didn't waste any time and started her bombardment,

"So what do you think of our world so far, does it compare much to yours?"

"I don't know yet doc, when I arrived her I was already in the middle of a fight, got shot, woke up in the hospital earlier today and spent time being ushered from the hospital to the academy then to here. But from what I've been told it operates differently to mine"

"How so?"

"Far too many differences to mention, for one thing I don't hear gunshots in the street so I'm guessing it's more peaceful"

"Well maybe we can arrange to give you the tour later"

"That'll have to take a back seat, my priority right now Is to find Sokolov"

"So hows the bear going to help you do that?"

"He wasn't with the group that arrived here with me, if he's what I think he is then I can track where he's been, he can lead us back to Sokolov or at least to somewhere we can find some information"

"Like following the breadcrumbs from Hansel and Gretel"

"Seems that some things in our worlds are the same, same principle applies here"

"What makes you think you can track him? The search teams scoured everywhere for him, we couldn't find any scent, and my crime scene techs couldn't find any trace of him not even a footprint or anything"

"I'm going to use my eyes"

"If it was that simple I think we would have found him by now"

"It isn't that easy for you, but for me it is"

He took off the sunglasses and let them hang from the breast pocket of his jacket,

"Tell me doc, do my eyes look normal to you?"

"No they don't, the only thing that does look normal about you is your shape and fur. I'm the one who assessed you at the hospital I know full well that you're not like any of the other mammals that arrived"

"You're right on the mark there. It's cause I'm a Seeker, it's my job to hunt down and stop the Thirin"

"The what?"

Nick called from the back of the group, he was trailing behind as he flicked through his phone,

"Demons"

Max shook his head slightly

"I really shouldn't have used that word. They're not demons as in heaven and hell, that's just the easiest description to give you."

Vicki's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, she couldn't believe that she was getting information about a new world right from one of it's inhabitants. And the fact that it sounded so different was even better.

"What would a more detailed description be then?"

"Very Alien. We don't know what they are exactly, all we know is that they live on a parallel plain to ours and that occasionally, and more often in recent years, a breach will appear between our worlds. When that happens these Thirin cross over, normally in small groups but they can cross in larger numbers if the breach is sufficient in size and duration. They capture mammals and kill and destroy anything that gets in their way until Thihir like myself put them down"

"So what makes you so special? Why do they have to wait for Thihir?"

"Thirin are extremely resilient, you can shoot them all day and all you'll do is slow them down or temporarily disable them, but they have a weakness to us Thihir"

"Why?"

"Sore subject Doc, lets just say I can"

They reached a set of double doors at the end of the corridor, Vicki stood to the side and Max tried the door but it wouldn't open.

"You got the key Doc?"

"I told you to call me Vicki, and I'm not going to open the door till you tell me why you can stop these things if other can't"

Claire called from behind Max,

"Doctor Clawhauser we need to see the bodies, lets not waste any time"

Vicki's look turned stern as she looked at Claire

"My facility my rules agent. It's my job to analyse and assess potential threats as much as it is yours" Her look softened and she turned to Max "Do you think these Thirin are involved here?"

"I don't think that they are, but something from their world is"

A light bulb turned on in Judy's head,

"The orb"

Max nodded at her, Vicki looked even more intrigued but Max raised his paw slightly to stop her from exploding with more questions,

"The orb is something that Sokolov has in his possession, It's an artefact we recovered from a Thirin attack, I think it's what brought us here"

"So there is a chance then. So I'll ask again, what makes you so special that they need to call you in to deal with them?"

Max curled one of his paws tightly into a fist for a moment before relaxing it. He stayed silent.

"I wont open this door till you tell me Max"

"You're petty you know that right? Sticking your nose in, can't you be satisfied with just knowing I can stop them for now?

"And what if they turn up and you haven't told us? We lose any chance of finding a means to defend ourselves"

Max was almost shaking with anger, and it was evident in his face as well. Claire, who was out of Max's sight, slowly reached to her waistband and put a paw on her tranquillizer gun. It took a few tense moments but Max managed to get calm himself down enough to talk bit it came out with spite.

"When you did my assessment at the hospital doc did you see the scars along my back? Or the branding on my chest? This is what Thirin do to those they choose to capture, I'll spare you the details of what they did to me but I would rather die than go through that pain again. I'm more like one of them now than the wolf I used to be."

He pulled the neck of his shirt down to clearly show the metal collar beneath it to Vicki,

"This collar isn't for fashion, it was welded around my neck to show everyone exactly what I am. Although Seekers protect everyone we're viewed as freaks, something to be tamed. So you see doc, it's not something I like to discuss"

He squeezed the bridge of his snout, Vicki twiddled her thumbs for a moment before swiping her card and unlocking the door,

"Sorry, I should have been a bit more tactful"

"I shouldn't have snapped, second time I've done that to you people. Just try not to pry so much"

Vicki pushed one of the doors open and the others followed her inside, the room was cold enough to blow vapours and had a very clinical look to it with tiles covering the floor and walls that were white in colour. Laid out on pathologist tables that were placed in rows were the bodies of several mammals, twelve mammals from the size of a small cat to an elephant, each was covered with a thick blue plastic sheet and a sign hung next to the feet of each one showing the deceased's name. Built into the wall on one side of the room was storage for more bodies, all of them had name cards on them, Max let out a solemn sigh,

"How many are there?"

"There's twenty seven here at the moment, we've already released eighteen civilian bodies to their families. All of the ones remaining are either from your world or are awaiting autopsy."

"Where's the bear?"

Vicki stepped ahead of them to the last but one table away from them. Max was sure that he heard the whispering again but put it too the back of his mind for now. She folded the sheet down to reveal the bears head, there were two exit holes in it's forehead from the bullets Max fired into the back of it's head at the intersection, the fur around the wounds had been shaved away and there were dimension marks penned in next to them. Nick muttered under his breath but the room was so quiet that it was easy for everyone to hear,

"Hope I never end up in here"

"I'll end up doing you're autopsy if you do"

Vicki forced out a laugh to try and lighten the mood but it fell flat, she cleared her throat,

"Uh, What do you need Max?"

"10 minutes, and don't disturb me, I need to concentrate"

"Before you start mind telling us how this is going to work?"

"Every creature has an aura that is unique to them, sort of like a fingerprint, Thirin use this to track mammals when they cross over and it's something that I can do as well. There's too many mammals in the city though so I need to cancel out the background noise by focusing on his, I can follow where it came from then and hopefully that will lead us closer to Sokolov."

"Why did you volunteer to stop him? You don't have follow orders from before you got here"

"We have history" He shot her a strict look "And that is off limits so no prying, Vicki"

"Okay, do you mind if I record this?"

"I don't mind, there a specific reason?"

"We're still learning about you, It may prove useful in the future"

* * *

Five minutes had passed and the group watched on patiently as Max sat in silence next to the dead bear with his back to them, he held the bears wrist in his paw and he had a blank look on his face like he was spaced out. Vicki was watching through the screen on her video camera that was set up on a tripod as she took notes of her observations, she always kept a camera on hand for ZBI records, and since the incident five days ago it had been running almost constantly. Claire had left the room after receiving an urgent call from Jack so Nick and Judy kept an eye on everything for her. With little going on Nick quickly became bored and started surfing through his Furbook much to Judy's annoyance, she elbowed him in the ribs and he gave her a hurt expression but ultimately gave in when she stared him down.

Judy's ears perked up as she caught the sound of something strange, Nick watched as she turned her head from side to side as she tried to find the source of the sound, he kept his voice down so as not to disturb Max.

"What's wrong carrots?

"I don't know, thought I heard something"

"Heard what?"

"Sounded like whispering, can't hear it now though"

"I didn't hear anything. It's been a long day maybe you're just tired?"

"I guess"

The door to the room opened and Claire walked over to them, she took a quick look at Max who was still in the same position as when she had left the room a few minutes ago.

"Our Intelligence guys have ID'd the bear. He's a local mechanic out of Tundra Heights by the name of James Padson. TUSK is going to raid his house and workplace now we should hear back from them in a bit"

"We're finally getting somewhere, think they'll find much?"

"I doubt it, he's been missing for three months but at this point I'll take whatever information we can get"

The main lights in the room flickered momentarily, Vicki who hadn't shown any interest in anything other than the camera since Max had started put her notebook down and started fiddling with the controls on the camera. Claire walked over and quietly asked,

"Something wrong Doctor?"

"The screens covered in static, it wasn't like that a moment ago"

Judy was looking around the room again but this time Nick's ears perked up as well, they looked at each other and realised they were hearing the same thing, Judy called over to Claire not bothering to keep her voice as quiet as before,

"Claire we can hear something, whispering"

"I can hear it too, Doctor is there another way into this room?"

"No only the door we came through?"

The lights flickered again, lasting longer this time than before. Max let go of the bears arm and stepped back from the stool he had been sitting on, his ears were flicking to and fro as well and he looked over to the group with concern on his face. He drew his gun and kept it by his side prompting the others to do so as well, the doctor was unarmed and stood next to Claire just as the lights went out. The room was plunged into pitch black stopping the night vision of Nick Max and Claire from working. Max called out into the darkness,

"Vicki this place got backup power?"

"Yes, it'll take a moment to kick in"

Nick knew where Judy was roughly and put his arm out managing to grab hold of her shoulder,

"Is this your doing Max?"

There was no answer,

"Max?"

A thud echoed through the room and a clattering of something hard hitting the floor followed it, a choking noise close to them made Nick pull Judy closer to him and for Vicki to fumble in the darkness and latch onto Claire's free arm.

A distant whirring sound was heard through the building as the backup generator kicked into life and the lights flickered on just in time for them to see Max be thrown by his throat across the room into the wall, his head hitting the tilled wall hard enough to smash the tile. A large naked Bull with solid yellow eyes and two bullet holes in it's chest picked the pathology table it had been lying on moments ago and hurled it across the room, hitting Max as he tried to pick himself up off the floor, it hit him square in the chest and he fell to the floor with the table landing upside down on top of him.

Claire snapped out of the initial shock of what was going on and started firing on the bull, prompting Nick and Judy to do the same. Vicki ran from Claire and hid behind a desk as bullet after bullet tore through the flesh of the bull, it seemed to have no affect however as it didn't even slow down as it launched itself at Claire. It smashed the gun out of her hand with a downward strike with it's fist, pain shot up her arms before it hit her in the stomach with it's other fist, bringing her to her knees, making her throw up as the wind was knocked out of her. It turned it's attention to Nick and Judy and stomped over to them, it's face was contorted in anger as it reached down to grab Judy. Nick pushed her out of the way however causing the bull to grab him instead. It lifted him up and looked him in the eye, the bulls grip was far tighter than that of Kevin or Max and he couldn't wriggle free. A bullet fired by Judy smashed into it's jaw snapping it's head to the side, it let out a horrendous guttural snarl as blood seeped out of the wound. It flung Nick aside and into a metal cabinet filled with surgery tools like he was a rag doll, he hit the cabinet with enough force to leave a large dent in it and he fell to a heap on the floor.

Judy yelled out to Nick but he wasn't moving, she dodged out of the way as the bull grabbed a metal box and threw it at her, the box hit the wall and broke open spilling personal effects from the deceased over the floor. She wasn't quick enough however to avoid it's kick which hit her in the side. Her small size coupled with the bulls immense strength sent her sliding across the floor into Claire. Judy held onto her side as the pain ripped through her body, Claire grabbed for her gun and raised it up only to have her wrist grabbed by the bull, he twisted her arm around making her yell out in pain and drop the gun again. It clenched it's other hoof and raised it above it's head ready to bring it down when it abruptly fell to one knee and let her go.

Claire watched as Max ran in from the side brandishing a fire axe that he had taken from the wall and swing it into the back of the knee of the bull. The bull turned it's head and snarled at Max, the snarl was cut short as Max brought the axe down into the top of it's skull sinking the blade up to the hilt. He pulled the axe out of the bulls head and kicked it to the floor, he then swung the axe again and again against it's neck sending blood splattering across the room until he had severed the bulls head. He threw the axe to the ground, the clang echoed around the room and he spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor next to it as he took deep breathes to calm himself down.

* * *

Vicki grabbed a first aid kit from a medical station on the wall and dashed over to Nick, quickly followed by Judy. They rolled him over and saw a large cut running down his face where he had hit the edge of the tool cabinet,

"Vicki, is he alright?"

"He's unconscious but breathing, help me bandage him up"

As they hurried to help Nick Max put his arm under Claire's and picked her up, sitting her down on an empty table, she was short of breathe and wincing as she held her twisted arm that the bull had grabbed and turned out of place. Max reached for here arm but she pulled away, her phone rang and she struggled as she pulled it out of her jacket pocket,

"It's Jack"

She put it on speaker and laid it on the table next to her,

"Claire I've got an initial report from the TUSK team, the bears place had been abandoned for some time, I'm having CSI comb it now"

"Jack listen, there's been an incident, we have an agent down get an ambulance down here"

"I'll send for one now, what happened?"

"I'm not sure, this is going to sound nuts but we just fought a corpse, we took a beating Nicks unconscious. Doctor Clawhauser's treating him at the moment"

"Right now everything sounds strange. Are the rest of you alright?"

"Not really, best you meet us at the hospital"

"Alright I'll send units to secure the place, they'll be with you in 10 minutes"

The line went dead, Max reached for her arm again,

"Claire, I need to sort your arm out, if I don't put it back in it's socket you might not be able to use it"

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"I've had to do it to myself more times than I'd care to, trust me"

She nodded and turned her head away, he gently took hold of her arm and lined it up,

"This is going to hurt"

With a quick jerk and a loud click he managed to put her arm back into it's socket, she grunted through clenched teeth as pain rippled through up her arm, it made her feel sick to her stomach but after a few seconds she was able to move it again, although painful she had full movement again.

"What just happened Max? That bull was dead, how the hell did it get up?"

"It's a puppet, a trick the Thirin can do"

"They can raise the dead?"

"Only for a few minutes, they're far more alien to us than I am to you and we don't understand them still after fighting them for centuries. That bull was in the same room as Sokolov and I when we arrived here, I'm guessing that orb has something to do with it"

"Christ, we really need to find this guy"

"That's an understatement"

* * *

Forty minutes later they were in the hospital that Max had woken up in. Claire had been examined and was lucky to have just heavy bruising, she would be in pain for a few days but she was given the all clear and some painkillers to help her out. Nick wasn't so lucky, he had a nasty concussion and was being kept in for monitoring, the cut on his face as deep and would probably leave a scar but his fur would cover most of it. Judy was also badly bruised and was staying by Nicks side as he recovered.

Claire was gingerly putting her jacket on as she walked out of the examination room, ahead of her Jack was sat next to Max on a waiting bench, the two of them were deep in conversation but they stopped as she approached. Jack had a concerned look on his face as he looked at her,

"How are you feeling Claire?"

She held a small yellow pill bottle in her paw,

"Sore sir. Nothings broken, just bruised"

"What's your assessment?"

"I've got painkiller sir, I'm good to go"

A female badger in doctors garb popped her head around the corner and called over to Jack who nodded at her.

"I have to go, Max says he can track where the bear has come from, let me know what you find"

Jack jumped down from the bench and walked off towards the badger, weaving in and out of the legs of larger mammals as they walked through. Claire sat down next to Max and took two pills from the bottle, she gulped them down without water and pulled a face as the pills tasted disgusting.

"What were you and Jack talking about?"

"I told him what happened, I left out the your less flattering puking"

She chuckled and shook her head,

"You sure you can track this bear?"

"I do, you ready to go?"

"You don't want to wait for Nick and Judy?"

"Do you think we have the time to wait, after what we just fought?"

"You're right, lets get this done"


	5. Chapter 5

Claire's unmarked cruiser had been left in the parking lot of the hospital by one of the agents who had responded to the morgue, as they crossed the lot to reach it Claire tossed her keys to Max who caught them with one paw,

"You drive, my arms still hurting"

"Saves me sounding like a GPS on the way to wherever we end up"

He got behind the wheel of the car as Claire flopped into the passenger seat, she struggled for a moment before managing to get her seatbelt to connect,

"You alright Claire?"

"Not really. I've been up for 32 hours, and I just fought a corpse that pulled my arm out of it's socket. How the hell are you so calm?"

He started the engine and drove through the lot towards the exit,

"I'm used to it by now I guess, but it took a long time to get like this. I've been a seeker for fifteen years, it opens your eyes to strange things that most mammals find unbelievable. After so long it just becomes another day in the office"

"Are things like this normal, where you come from?"

"Sort of. My world has been at war with the Thirin for more than a century, but it's not like you can point to a country on the map and say 'that's the enemy home right there lets bomb it'. Our major cities are walled off and patrolled at all hours of the day, when the Thirin do attack alarms are triggered and everyone runs for the nearest shelter and they let the emergency services deal with it, so most haven't even seen one of them. Those that have seen them don't see things the same way any more"

"God I hope it doesn't come to that here"

"I hope so as well, no offence but you guys wouldn't stand a chance"

He pulled out of the lot onto the main road and headed odd towards the intersection where this all started so he could pick up the trail. Along the way Claire's phone rang, she connected it to the cars system and answered it. The dashboard showed the call coming from Vicki, Max stayed quiet and concentrated on following the satnav on his phone that the techs had managed to link to the networks here.

"What can we do for you doctor?"

"Nothing, just calling to let you know that we've disposed of the bodies with the incinerator like Max suggested, so we won't have to worry about them coming back. The TUSK unit that was sent here's being released to you by Jack. They're going to head to their staging area and are on channel five if you need them"

"Thanks doc"

"How are you guys doing?"

"We're banged up but doing alright, Nick's being kept in observation overnight as a precaution and Judy's staying with him"

"Poor thing. I'll head on over once we have everything cleaned up here, maybe I can get something from my fathers bakery on the way to cheer them up. Talk to you later"

The line went dead and Claire ended it on her end, she opened the glove box and pulled out a paw held radio and clipped it to her belt after setting the channel to five. Under his breath Max muttered,

"I feel bad for snapping at her earlier"

This didn't go unnoticed by Claire who started questioning him,

"Why did you snap at her? I know she's a bit annoying and all"

"I didn't want to, it just difficult to keep my temper under control sometimes. I'm not used to working with others. People usually avoid Seekers like the plague, we're aren't known for being the nicest of mammals given our predicament"

"Is it because of what happened to you?"

"More or less, I mean I've been heavy pawed with people before but that was necessary in my job, what they did to me seems to have amplified it"

"Do you mind me asking what you did before?"

"You're awfully curious"

"Well we're going to be driving for a while, would you rather we sit in silence?"

"Alright tell you what, I'll tell you about me, in exchange you tell me about yourself"

"Myself? Sure you don't want to ask about anything else?

"Well I could, but I don't think there's much else I want to know at the moment that isn't probably considered classified. We're stuck together until this is done right? I'd like to know about who I'm working with. Deal?"

Max turned the car onto the the main thoroughfare leading to their destination, it would still be ten minutes before they arrived. Claire bobbed her head slightly from side to side as if weighing up the pro's and cons of the offer.

"Alright. I emigrated here when I was ten from another continent. My father was a chemical engineer and when he was offered a big promotion we moved with him as he would have been away from home for months at a time. My mother was a stay at home mom and made a bit of extra money for us by making pottery in her spare time, she wasn't very good at it but it made her happy. After my dad died in an industrial accident I kind of gave up, with everything, and I dropped out of high school. I drifted between jobs for a bit before joining up with the army after watching some cheesy advert. Was the best decision I had made in a long time, it gave me focus and allowed me to travel around the world"

"What did you do in the army?"

"Signal Corps for three years, I was later seconded to a combined intelligence group for military and domestic law enforcement operations. I got spotted by one of the ZBI agents during the time I was with the group, and after my army service ran up I was approached by him for a position with the ZBI, I've been with them for ten years now"

"The agent that spotted you, he wouldn't happen to be a tiny grey rabbit with black markings would he?"

She gave him a dry look

"How did you guess?"

"Shot in the dark really. Your relationship seems to be very open, you hardly refer to him as boss or use his title, shows a deeper connection than just a working one"

"Well I'll give it to you, few people figure it out this fast after I tell them."

"I was in the military as well"

"No shit"

"Yeah, though I was army police. I don't know who my parents were, I was found by another soldier during a search and rescue operation after a breach attack. I wound up in foster care and drifted from family to orphanage every few months, didn't matter where I went I couldn't fit in. One day I got called into the head's office to meet another potential foster parent, low and behold it was the soldier who found me. He'd been discharged and was working as a private security contractor. He was curious to see what had happened to the five year old pup he had dug out of the rubble. Within a few months he had adopted me and I finally had a home where I actually felt at home, he helped me keep in shape and when I was old enough I joined up. Spent three years moving between stations before being settled at one of his old bases."

"I bet you got hazed for that"

"Please, don't remind me, it went on and on, but I knew there wasn't any malice in it and after a while it died down. Now as far as I have seen in my short time here your military doesn't patrol the streets right?"

"That's right, they can't act on home soil without higher authority"

"Well back where I'm from they do, it's to help increase reaction times for Thirin attacks. My patch covered the farthest sector from the base so we used some of the offices in the local police precinct, I had only been away from the station for ten minutes when the shit hit the fan. A massive breach opened up in the city not far from where I was and I was one of the first responders. You know from earlier that it didn't go well. After I recovered I was moved to the Seekers, been with them for fifteen years now"

"Do they attack often?"

"They didn't use to, we'd have one, maybe two attacks a year, and they would be quickly contained for the most part. But over the last few years it's increased. Before I ended up here we had four in a six month period, one of which was huge and took ages to deal with"

"How many of you are there?"

"Thihir?"

"Yeah"

"Last count there were 93"

"That's not a lot for a city"

"That's the entire country. There's less than a thousand of us worldwide"

The intersection came into view and Max slowed down the cruiser bringing it to a gentle stop. The road had been reopened two days ago after the investigators had made sure that every scrap of evidence had been gathered. A small memorial had been set up with hundreds of bouquets of flowers, many with photos of the victims, laid in a neat pile along the pavement, they were soaked from the rain that had now been steadily falling for the last couple of hours. He turned the engine off and got out, turning his coats collar up to give him a bit of respite from the weather. Claire watched from inside the car as he slowly paced around the intersection, it was lucky that it was still too early for most mammals to be up and about.

"What are you doing?"

"Just give me a minute, gotta sort through what I'm seeing here"

Claire got out of the cruiser and looked at the flowers, there were a few paw written messages from bereaved family members and friends all shocked at what had happened. As she glanced over them she spotted something, a photo a the bear that Max was trying to track. She picked it up and flipped it over, on the back was a paw written message,

 _Can't believe you're gone Terry, I don't believe that you did what they said you did. You'll always be in our hearts, love Angie._

She heard foots steps and turned to see Max with a victorious grin on his face,

"I got the trail. What you got there?"

"Have a look"

She handed the photo to him and he read what was on the back.

"Wife?"

"He didn't have a ring, sister maybe?"

"Could be, perhaps she can shed some light on his movements."

"That's what I'm thinking, first things first though, lets find where he was"

They got back in the car with Max behind the wheel again, he turned the car around and headed down one of the smaller roads. They weaved up and down different neighbourhoods and on at least two occasions they did a full loop around a block before heading off in a different direction.

"You sure you know where you're going Max?"

"Well I'm following what looks like a trail of smoke, I can't just jump ahead of it, I have to follow where he went bit by bit, It's slow but it works"

"Looping around blocks, switching directions at random, looks like old school counter intelligence procedures we used to teach spies"

"Well that makes sense, and it lends creditability to them being controlled by Sokolov like I believed"

"How so?"

"Sokolov was a member of the intelligence services before he became a Thihir, he got caught out during an evacuation and got captured. When I became a Seeker he had already been with the, for ten years and was in charge of training the new recruits, he taught me how to spot and avoid mammals monitoring others."

"Sounds like we're at another disadvantage"

"He'll try and stack everything in his favour before making a move, nothing he does is off the cuff, he's ruthless and intelligent."

"So if this leads to nothing?"

"Then we're in a lot of trouble"

* * *

The sun was beginning to rise as Max drove through the narrow streets of the upper Canal District, the trail had taken them from Savanna Central through Downtown, the Rainforest District and finally through the Majority of the Canal District. Max poked Claire gently on the side of her face, she was asleep and her bad arm was next to him, he didn't want to disturb it in any way. She mumbled something inaudible as she woke up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She looked around and saw them driving slowly down a street filled with detached two storey houses, she looked at the satnav and it showed them to be near Bromeliad Street Station.

"Christ, how long have I been out?"

"About two hours, get your game face on, end house is where the trail stops"

Max coasted the car to a stop a few houses down and amongst other cars that were parked up before turning the engine off. They took a good look a the house from where they were sat but it looked the same as every other house, clad in overlapped wooden planks and painted white, they all had picket fences and looked like the picturesque Zootopian dream house.

"Are you sure about this Max?"

"Absolutely positive"

Claire pulled out her radio and put the earpiece that was connected to it in before calling over it, it took a few attempts but she got hold of the TUSK team leader. As she was giving him their location and organising a raid Max took his gun out of it's holster and made sure it was loaded. One of the houses in the street a few doors down had a light on and he could see movement.

"They better get here quick, people are starting to get up"

"They're in fast response cruisers but they're still a few miles away, should be here in about fifteen minutes"

A light in another house flicked on,

"That might not be fast enough, we need to check for another exit for the house before the team gets here"

"There's another radio in the glove box"

He opened it up and set it to channel five like she had and put it in his ear, he tested the radio to make sure it was working before looking at her,

"You stay in the car, I'll take a peek. If you see anything let me know"

She nodded at him and he opened the door, closing it quietly behind him. So as to look less conspicuous he walked down the road as if it was a normal thing for him to be here, confidence is key as he was taught, if you look like you belong then people will turn a blind eye. Luckily for him the picket fence ran flush to the edge of the house meaning he didn't have to hop over it to take cover behind the wall as he headed to the back. The back garden was surrounded by a fence at least six feet high making it a bit of a stretch for him to see over without being spotted by any occupants, but he found a hole in the fence where a knot used to be and he peered through it. The back door of the house was a pair of French sliding glass doors, there were no lights on in the house and he could easily see the wall mounted TV was off. He held the mouthpiece close to his mouth and called over the radio in a whisper,

"Claire, back door is glass and I've got a pretty good view inside. No sign of anyone."

"That's good, maybe they're asleep"

"Either that or they're out. I stick out like a sore thumb here I'm coming back"

He strolled back to the car just as a sheep in a postal workers outfit walked out of their house in front of him, the sheep looked at him with a sleepy glaze in his eyes,

"Morning" the sheep yawned it out almost making it unintelligible, Max pulled his hat down a bit

"Uh morning"

The sheep didn't seem to have heard him and got into it's car that was parked just in front of Claire's cruiser, Max slowed down a little and waited for him to pull out before getting into the cruiser.

"That was close"

"What was, he just said morning to you"

"Notice anything missing Claire?"

She looked at him for a moment before it clicked,

"You don't have your sunglasses"

"Broke in the morgue, I need a new pair if I'm to blend in"

More lights started to come on in the street as mammals started to get up for their daily routines, with the street being out of the way of the noise from any major thoroughfare Max and Claire could just make out the sound of children's television channels coming from the house that they were parked outside of. There was still no movement coming from the house they were watching and as the minutes passed by they were becoming more anxious until the radio crackled into life,

"This is alpha one, we're coming up on the target now, ETA 30 seconds. Is the route clear?"

Claire clicked the button on the side and answered,

"Clear, no movement from the target"

Claire got out of the car and Max followed, the curtain on the ground floor room of the house next to them opened and a young bobcat was stood on the windowsill in it's pyjamas as it's father held it up, it waved at the two of them as the father watched in curiosity at these two mammals in suites as they ran down the pavement. The screeching of tyres caught his attention and three marked ZBI cruisers with their lights flashing speed down the road and slid to a stop outside the house they were running towards. Other residents, alerted by the sounds, peeked out to see what was going on as six heavily armed and armoured mammals in black uniforms and gas-masks got out of their cars and ran up the garden path. The first one to the door swung a battering ram at the door and knocked it in in one hit, he quickly threw it to the side and followed the rest of the team in as they stormed the house. Yells of "ZBI don't move!" and "Get on the ground!" echoed from the house until a quick burst of gunfire rang out, more shots quickly followed before silence fell on the area.

Claire and Max were stood outside the house with their guns trained on the upstairs windows in case anyone tried to get out or fire from them, a few agonising moments went by before the radio crackled to life with the calm voice of the team leader,

"Scene's clear, we have two suspects down on the first floor"

"Copy that, we're coming inside"

They stepped through the front door into a diner kitchen, empty food cans and dirty dishes were piled up over the dining table and the sink was filled with filthy water that filled the room with an unpleasant odour. A member of the TUSK unit stepped aside and pointed to were the staircase was and they headed in that direction, the floor had been stripped back to the concrete foundation and there were deep grooves as if something heavy had been dragged across it, the grooves led to a side door that was open slightly. Max pushed the door open gently, inside was the large attached garage that was empty of vehicles, it did however have a manually operated pneumatic crane that was sat at the end of the grooves.

"The hell did they drag through here?"

Claire called from behind him taking his attention away from the room

"Max, over here"

He turned to see her standing on the bottom step of the stairs, she was shinning her flashlight on the step in front of her,

"Watch your step, there's casings on the stairs, need to preserve evidence"

"Got it"

They made their way up the stairs carefully so as not to disturb anything, a few feet away from the top of the stairs on the landing lay the body of a young moose in it's early twenties dressed in just a pair of boxers slumped in it's side, it had several bullet holes in it's chest and a shotgun laying next to it, a spent shotgun shell lay nearby and there were buckshot holes in the wall next to the staircase. The TUSK leader was stood next to it,

"This one fired on us as we made it up the stairs. There's a goat in the bedroom on the left, we had to take him down as well he wouldn't drop his gun"

"Alright, secure the place till relief units arrive. Keep any media at bay."

"You got it"

The TUSK agents headed down the stairs and out of sight, Max stepped into the bedroom and saw the body of the goat on it's knees and slumped against the wall, it had an Uzi in it's hoof and bullet wounds in it's chest also. It's grey t-shirt was soaked with blood and it was staring at the door with blood running out of it's nose and the side of it's mouth. It's eyes were a solid yellow like Max's and it looked as if it was staring through him sending a shiver up his spine. Claire came up behind him and he stepped out of the doorway onto the hall to let her see,

"Look at the eyes, he's definitely with Sokolov"

"The moose is the same"

Max turned around and started walking towards the room at the end of the landing. Claire stood outside the bedroom looking between the goat and the moose. She drew her pistol and fired two shots hitting each of the mammals in the head, Max slowly walked towards her looking at her a little concerned as the radio beeped, the gun was resting by her side and was still smoking,

"Why are there shots? You alright?"

It was Max this time who answered the TUSK leader,

"We're fine, just taking precautions"

"Precautions?!"

"You'll be briefed later, just hold the perimeter"

Max stood next to her and looked her dead in the eye making it clear that he wanted an explanation, she holstered her gun and said mater of factly,

"I don't want to risk the morgue again, the thoughts bad enough"

"I don't blame you, a little warning though next time please"

She nodded and followed him across the landing, the last room looked like a makeshift workshop with tools lying on a large wooden table, empty boxes and bags lay piled up in one corner and a laptop and external hard drive sat on a separate table against the far wall. Max hit one of the keys and the screen lit up and showed a screen requiring a password,

"I don't suppose your time in the signals gave you any way of cracking this on the fly?"

"Sorry, wrong division"

"Figures"

"What were they up to here?"

"Don't know"

He had a puzzled look on his face which was caught by Claire,

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"Something smells familiar, but I can't make out what it is, that stench from downstairs isn't making it easy"

The sounds of distant sirens approaching signalled that backup was on it's way, Claire parted the curtains with the back of her paw and had a look along the main highway that lead to where they were, a convoy of emergency vehicles was rushing through the now building early morning traffic, amongst the convoy was a sizeable white truck that she recognised.

"CSI's on the way, we should head back outside and let them do their thing"

As they walked back along the landing Max poked open the door to another room and his jaw almost hit the floor,

"Holy shit"

Inside was the mother load of weapons from shotguns and assault rifles to pistols and stun-guns. Claire walked in behind him and her eyes bulged wide,

"There's enough weapons here to arm a small country"

* * *

The area was quickly swamped with ZBI technicians that were going through the entire house with a fine toothed comb, every house in the street had been evacuated and the area surrounding the street was on lock down to prevent anyone who wasn't need to know from finding anything out. Claire made a quick call to Jack and after giving a brief report they were told to head back to the Academy.

Once back at the temporary section headquarters the two of them were subjected to individual interrogation to ensure that their stories were the same, once satisfied they were summoned to Jack's office where the full events of the night were pieced together, Jack made no attempt to hide the fact that everything was being recorded and stored on his personal computer.

All in all it had taken another two hours before they were finally released to have a break. Both of them were tired and with the CSI technicians still early in their sweep of the house and with no other leads they decided to call it a night, hopefully when they got up later there would be something for them to work with.

"One thing hasn't been arranged yet Claire?"

she let out a yawn,

"Oh?"

"I haven't got anywhere to stay, Jack was going to organise something but I think he got sidetracked"

"No it's all been sorted, your staying in a with me"

"With you eh?"

"Orders are to keep an eye on you remember? There's a spare room in my apartment, or you could sleep on a bench here if you would like"

"I'll take the bed"

Insisting that her arm was good enough, and that she wasn't too tired, Claire drove them to a neighbourhood only three miles from the academy called the Narrows after it's high rise tenement blocks and narrow streets back from when the city was first founded and construction crews needed cheep accommodation. She pulled into the parking lot of a rather dishevelled looking building, her cruiser stood out next to many of the run down and beat up looking cars used by the tenants as it was pretty new and well looked after. She lead the way through the front door, a female bulldog with her left arm shaven and with tattoos covering it sat upright as they entered, she had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and one of her paws under the desk.

"Hey Marline, hows your son?"

She had a thick Irish accent that was difficult to understand

"The little shits driving me crazy, but that's what kids are put on this earth to do"

They headed into the elevator and it played it's crappy music as they headed up, the doors were chrome and polished to a mirror finish, Max could see the pain was coming back in her arm and so he decided to distract her,

"How longs Marline been with the agency?"

Claire's jaw dropped and she looked at him with disbelief,

"You're kind of creepy you know that right? How the hell did you know? "

"Educated guess. They way she tensed up when she saw me with you, only to relax when you mentioned the son. Not to mention she kept her paw under the desk as if she was holding something, I'm guessing a shotgun or high caliber pistol for anyone who failed the passphrase?"

"Shot shell revolver loaded with slugs, packs enough punch at close range to pierce most armour available to civilians. Was it that obvious?"

"It wouldn't be to your average Joe. You said yourself before we left the academy that you are to monitor me, it stands to reason that there would be a second agent at least close by in case something bad happened. Plus she looked me in the eyes and didn't react, means she's been put in the loop"

"Don't mention it to Jack"

"Hadn't planned on, why don't you want him knowing?"

"He moved me after the last time someone spotted through my guard, I like this apartment"

The lift came to a gradual stop and pinged as the door opened, the corridor lead to eight separate apartments and he followed her to the last door at the end of the corridor. He could hear the sound of someone's TV echoing through the quiet corridor and the sounds of mammals beginning their days. Claire pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door, she opened it a little and put her arm around the corner, he could hear short sharp bleeps as she typed her security code into the alarm before the apartment lights flickered to life. She stepped inside and he followed her, the inside was a vast contrast to the exterior, new hardwood flooring that had been polished and was shinning, a large Living/diner/kitchen combo created a huge living space that was well furnished with bookcases, a large TV, a plush couch and chairs, massive wooden dinning table with six chairs, a kitchen with almost a dozen different appliances that were all chrome and looked brand new. A closed door led off to another part of the apartment where the bedrooms, bathroom and utility room was. As he looked around he could see that nothing was out of place,

"You can leave the army, but the army never leaves you"

"Got that right. Now I don't know about you Max but after a day like this I need a drink, bourbon?"

"I think that would hit the spot nicely"

She pulled out two glass tumblers and a half empty bottle from a cupboard, she poured a generous amount into each glass and handed it to him as she walked passed him before flopping down into one of the chairs. He hung his coat up and took the glass before sitting down on the other chair a few feet away. He took a sip of the golden liquid, it warmed his throat and had a nice smooth taste to it without any unpleasant after-taste.

"That's a good one, thanks"

"Don't mention it"

They sat in silence for a while as they slowly drank their drinks. Claire was staring at her glass and rolling it between her paws,

"Max"

"Yeah?"

"What's he up to, Sokolov."

"I don't know. Whatever it is it can't be good for anyone"

She didn't say anything else and he looked over at her,

"You alright Claire?"

"Yeah..Yeah I'm good. I'm gonna hit the sack, your rooms on the left, there's spare cloths in there from Jack. If you need anything to eat or whatever help yourself, I'll see you in a few hours"

She put her glass in the sink and headed off through the only other door in the apartment. He was almost ready for bed himself, but first he was going to help himself to another drink.

Across the city the day had officially started with many mammals trying to rush through the morning commute. One large mammal in particular started earlier than most, and he was already sat behind his large mahogany desk reading through the papers stock market page. There was a knock on the door and the booming voice of the large mammal beckoned for the person to enter. A smaller mammal have it's size walked quickly over to him and handed a phone to him,

"Sir, you need to take this"

The large mammal took the phone from it and placed it to it's ear, it listened intently for a few moments before rage spread over it's face and it crushed the phone with one hoof. Between clenched teeth it growled,

"William. Find the masked wolf, make sure he is still playing ball with us. If he isn't I'll crucify him"

* * *

AN - Well my upload schedule plan went out the window with this one, I'll upload them as and when they are ready. Let me know what you think.


	6. Chapter 6

The rain had settled and the sun was now high in the sky above Zootopia, families were enjoying the better weather along the southern beach of Savanna Central not far from the train line leading to Bunny Burrow. A quiet coastal road only wide enough for one vehicle ran along the cliffs above, and a large black landrover built for an elephant wound it's way along it. As it passed under the suspended rail line a large warehouse like structure that was painted white came into view next to it, along with a few old train engines that looked like they had been abandoned for decades in an abandoned rail-yard. The large parking lot outside the building was empty bar for one grey SUV and the landrover pulled into a space next to it. From the landrover stepped five mammals, a tiger in a dark green suit smoking a cigar, two wolves and two lions, all four of them were dressed in dark suits with long overcoats on, the barrels of a shotgun just visible from underneath. The wolves headed in first followed by the tiger and lions, the inside of the building was loud and full of mammals hauling large metal drums back and forth, sparks flew from two box trucks as a team of mechanics welded something on the interior, a group of mammals in white overalls and masks were at the back of the building mixing barrels of liquids together. A metal staircase lead overhead catwalks where a suspended office sat off to one side while a gantry crane took up most of the upper floor, it was currently keeping one of the trucks suspended a few feet in the air while parts of it were being replaced.

The two lions stayed at the bottom of the staircase while the tiger and wolves headed up, the tiger didn't bother knocking on the office door, he simply flung it open and stepped inside followed by his guards, the office was sparsely furnished with a filling cabinet and a desk with a chair being the only furniture in the room. Stood at the desk leaning over a large unfolded map was Sokolov, dressed in black cargo pants and a grey shirt, who barely seemed to notice the loud thud of the door as it swung open into the wall and lazily lifted his head just for a moment before turning his attention back to the map.

"Mr Stripe, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Don Hyde sent me"

"Obviously, you wouldn't be here otherwise" he took a pen off the desk and made some notes on the map,

"The house we lent you, in Bromeliad, the Feds have found it. You told us there was no chance of them finding out about your operation"

"They haven't it wasn't the Feds that found it, it was an old friend that led them to it"

"A friend? Your friend, your fault, so what the fuck are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter that they found the house"

"Of course it fucking matters, if they dig far enough it'll come back to us!"

"Not my problem"

"Did you forget the deal you made with Don Hyde? He provides you what you need, food, materials, workers, and in exchange you make the blue tide for us and keep your operation quiet. So far you haven't delivered a single ounce of powder and now we got Feds in the mix complicating matters."

The tiger walked over and leant against the desk bringing his face close to Sokolov's,

"Don Hyde doesn't like it when mammals go back on their deals, or when they risk what we work for, do you understand?"

"William, it is William isn't it? I understand that you are loyal to your boss, and that you probably get a kick out of trying to scare mammals like me, but I am not intimidated, nor do I plan on doing anything about the house. Why don't you take your crew and go tell Mr Hyde he can deal with his own problems."

William barred his teeth and stepped around the desk, grabbed Sokolov by the shirt collar and pulled him towards him,

"You listen to me you little shit, you're going to make good on your deal and sort this mess out or I swear to god.."

His eyes went wide and he yelled in pain as Sokolov flicked his long claws out on both paws and jammed them into his chest between his ribs. His guards flung their coats open and grabbed their shotguns, but a burst of fire from outside the room tore through the thin metal skin of the office and killed both the wolves, more shots rang out downstairs and yells of pain before it went quiet. William was screaming in pain as Sokolov lifted him off the ground, blood poured around his fingers as they dug deeper into the tigers flesh under his own weight.

"You think I'm scared of a pathetic little shit like you? You're nothing,"

He tore his claws outwards, ripping through Williams sides. The tiger fell to the floor against the desk in a dishevelled heap, blood started to pool around him as he gasped for breath, his pierced lungs beginning to collapse, bubbles of blood ran out the side of his mouth and he was unable to move. Sokolov watched as William took his last gasps of breath, from behind him walked a hippo carrying a large rifle resting against his shoulder.

"You alright boss?"

"I'm fine"

Sokolov took the handkerchief sticking out of Williams breast pocket and used it to wipe the blood from his fingers.

"What do you want done about them?"

"Leave them, we'll burn them along with this entire place. What's our time frame for Hyde?"

"He's not one to linger boss, when he can't get hold of William he'll send a crew over. I'd say we have a few hours at most"

Sokolov looked at his watch,

"Then there's a chance we can kill two birds with one stone"

"I'll make sure the surprise is extra large sir"

Sokolov smiled as best as the mask would allow,

"Damien my friend, this is why I like having you around"

* * *

 _The cold steel walls of the morgue felt claustrophobic as Claire looked around her, her breath forming mist and a shiver ran up her spine. A single table sat in the middle of the room beneath the only working light, a body covered in a blue sheet lay upon it. Slowly she approached it, her claws clattering against the tiled floor. Gingerly she reached out and took hold of the edge of the sheet, her heart was beating like a drum in her chest. She flung the sheet back but the body was gone, her eyes went wide as she noticed mist flowing over her shoulder as the fur on the back of her head stood on end. She spun round but was grabbed by the black bull, the two holes in his chest were seeping with blood and his eyes almost glowed as he grabbed her by the throat. His hoofs dug deep into her neck as he he pinned her to the table, she reached for her gun but it wasn't in it's holster. She struggled franticly against him, she punch and kicked him as best as she could but nothing she did made any impact. She could almost feel her neck bones cracking as he squeezed, she couldn't breathe and her struggling weakened as her vision began to fade._

Claire opened her eyes and looked around her in panic, her breathing was rapid and she was covered in sweat, it took her a minute to realise that she was in her apartment bedroom. She looked to the digital clock on her bedside table to see it was just gone 1 in the afternoon, she'd only been asleep for about four hours and she felt like she had been hit by a train. She forced herself slowly into a sitting position and grabbed the bottle of pills that the doctor had given her in the hospital and took out two, her mouth was dry so she went to her en-suite and chased the pills down with a few pawfulls of cold water. The pain in her stomach was intense and she lifted her oversized t-shirt to take a look, a huge dark bruise went from her waistline up to her chest and it was very sore to touch, it looked more like she had been hit by a car than by any mammals fist. Claire really wanted to get to sleep, but knew from previous bad nights that it was unlikely. She flopped herself down onto the chair by her desk in the corner of the room and logged into her laptop, she made sure the camera on top was looking at her then called the only contact she had on there. It rang for a few moments but the video-call eventually connected to show Jack sat at his desk in the Academy, another cigarette lit in his paw, the thin trail of smoke occasionally passing in front of the camera.

"I didn't expect you to be up yet Claire, you only clocked out five hours ago"

She let out a defeated sigh,

"Couldn't sleep, waiting for the painkillers to kick in"

"Are you sure you're good to go?"

"I'm fine Jack, it's just a large bruise. You been watching him?"

"Yes I have the feed on a separate monitor. He's asleep in the chair, doesn't look like he's getting much rest though"

She opened up another window that showed a camera view from the ceiling, it showed Max sitting in the same chair that he had been in when she went to bed. An empty whiskey bottle lay at his feet and he had his pistol in his paw on the arm of the chair. He kept moving his head and free paw around as if he was having a nightmare.

"He's sharp Jack, he clocked Marline as one of us straight away, It wont be long till he figures out this is just a safe house and that we're monitoring him"

"I'm sure he's already aware of it, but I'd rather have him play along than cause a scene. So far he's stuck to his word and I'd like to keep things civil between us so keep him sweet if you can alright?"

"I know what to do Jack"

His face became more stern

"Listen, we had an incident earlier not long after you left. A helicopter from a conservation group buzzed the facility earlier, ZPD got to them as soon as they landed. We've done some checks and they seem to be innocent so far, but it forced us to make a decision about our security, myself and the other agency directors have agreed that we're moving to the monitoring station today at 11pm. We have a two hour window to move everything in"

"Aren't they still building that?"

"Construction's been finished and the basic equipment is in, it'll be cramped if we have to go to lock-down until the bunkhouse and rec-rooms are finished, but the main body is done."

"Do you need us for security?"

"No I don't want you near here in case it turns out to be more than it seems, I've sent one of our technicians, Marvin, to precinct one with some stuff that should help Max blend in more. I didn't expect you to be ready till later so he'll meet you when you call him"

"Thanks Jack"

"Don't mention it.."

He started to cough and splutter, he was leaning on the desk and his face was red as he struggled to suppress the unrelenting coughing fit. Claire could do nothing but watch with worry for almost a minute before he managed to get control and slowly calm down. His breathing was raspy and he pulled a tissue from a box on his desk, spitting something into it and throwing it away.

"It's getting worse, isn't it?"

"It certainly isn't getting any better, but that's enough of that. The CSI crew from the house have found a mountain of data, they're still cracking the laptop but they're making headway with everything else"

"Anything good so far?"

"Well, we found an unknown chemical compound inside one of the cases from the makeshift workstation upstairs, we ran it through every known database we have but it nobody knows what it is, our guys are going to try and replicate it but they say it may take some time."

"Is that wise?"

"We need to know what it is, we can't leave anything unchecked. I'll let you know what we find, try and get some rest."

He cancelled the call, Claire stared at the monitor, she muttered under her breath

"Get some rest, fat chance of that"

She put a pair of sweatpants over her underwear and headed into the kitchen to make a coffee, she was careful to make as little noise as possible as she knew Max was only about twenty feet away in the open plan apartment. As she measured out the coffee and sugar the way she liked it she could hear him mumbling in his sleep, she leant against the counter and listened as she waited for the water to boil, most of it was illegible but she could just make out him say Sarah. Suddenly his eyes snapped open, he sat bolt upright and raised his gun, pointing around the room franticly as he breathed heavily.

"Easy there Max, it's just us"

He stared at her for a moment before relaxing and lowering the gun against the arm rest before holstering it, he rubbed his face with his paws and let out a groan,

"The hell was in that whiskey?"

"I think it's more the quantity than what was in it"

He looked down at the empty bottle next to him and gave a sheepish grin for a moment,

"Sorry, I'll get you a new one. Somehow"

He looked over at the clock on the wall,

"Let me guess, boss called and needs us in?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because we've had like three hours sleep, and you're up making coffee"

"No I couldn't sleep, sorry If I woke you up"

"I couldn't sleep either"

"Want one?"

"Please, black and as much sugar as you can get in there"

A few minutes later and Max was sipping his coffee as Claire rummaged around the cupboards, most of the doors were open and she was pulling out various cans before either chucking them back where they came from or simply dropping them to the side.

"Sod this, I need something good to eat. Fancy going to a dinner Max?"

"You'd have to pay, got anything to cover my eyes?"

"I can get you some glasses on the way, you can use the shower in the hall I have an en-suite"

He nodded and sipped some more of his coffee as he watched her head back to her room. After a few minutes he heard her shower start up and he took the opportunity to have a poke around. There were several bookcases full of books covering most topics that could come to mind, DVD and blue-ray cases filled any remaining gaps, it would satisfy anyone at a glance but it looked odd to Max, there were no photos, nothing that made the place seem homely or lived in, he knew the army had a way of making you keep things need and tidy without you really thinking about it but everyone has mementos and there was a distinct lack of anything like that. He chugged down the rest of his coffee and went to get ready, he was sure he was being watched but tried to put it to the back of his mind and play along for now, he would get answers another time.

* * *

After showering and getting a fresh set of clothes that had been left for him on the bed, that he had every intention of sleeping on tonight, the two of them headed into the city to get some food. Both of their stomachs were grumbling and they were both looking forward to eating, but that had to wait as Claire made a quick detour. She left Max in the parking lot of a small shopping centre and dashed inside, after a few minutes in which Max looked over every nook and cranny inside the car that he could get to to check for bugs she emerged with a small paper bag. She dumped it on his lap as she got in and started out of the parking lot straight away, he opened the bag and found a pair of sunglasses and a small case about the size of a credit card,

"What's this?"

"There's a novelty shop in there that sells cheap sunglasses. While I was there I spotted contact lenses like they use in films, it wont mask all the yellow but it should make it less noticeable"

"I'll give it a try afterwards, when I'm not in a jittery vehicle"

He pulled the tag off and slipped the glasses on, they were a bit of a tight fit but it did the job.

* * *

An SUV and a transit van drove down the road towards the rail-yard and stopped behind one of the large unused diesel engine locomotives. From the vehicles stepped nine mammals, all of them well armed and looking like they were ready for a fight. They moved from locomotive to locomotive until they could see the white warehouse beneath the train-line, the parking lot was empty and there was nobody outside so they rushed across the tarmac to the building. No sound came from inside and when they burst in, ready to kill everyone inside as the Don had ordered, they instead found the place empty. Large power tools lay scattered across the floor and there were signs that the place had been in use recently. The smell of fresh blood hung in the air and they slowly spread out to search the place, three of them headed up the stairs to the office trying to make as little sounds as possible. The distant sound of the hourly train from Bunny Burrow approaching reverberated around the building as they reached the office. Through the window the body of William Stripes, Don Hyde's go to associate lay on the floor surrounded by blood, the mammal in front of the group opened the door and watched as a wire pinged from the rear of it.

* * *

Claire and Max were sat in a 1950's styled dinner and were just finishing their breakfast, a small stack of plates by each of them was all that was left of their marathon feed and they each had another cup of coffee. Max had, after being bugged by Claire, tried on the contact lenses after she had stopped the cruiser in the dinner's parking lot, it had taken a few attempts to get it right and they were not the most comfortable things to wear but they did a fair enough job. At a glance it looked like he had normal brown eyes, it was only if you stared at them did you start to notice something unusual about them, and none of the staff or other patrons had looked that closely yet.

Max looked to be in high spirits and Claire certainly felt like a functioning mammal again, she took a sip of her drink and waited for the waitress to take their plates before asking him, she wasn't sure if this was a good time or not, but hell with it she decided to roll the dice,

"Max, I hope you don't mind me asking but who's Sarah?"

He nearly chocked on his drink and had to take a moment to compose himself, he stared at her for a moment,

"How the hell do you know that name?"

"You were mumbling it when I was making coffee this morning"

He rocked his mug back and for and stared into it, he didn't say anything or even look at her for an uncomfortable amount of time.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked"

"No it's... I just didn't expect it to... She's the reason I hate Sokolov so much, why I want to kill him badly enough to surrender to that rabbit"

"Jack?"

"Yeah. Come off it, I know full well I'm being used, but I'll accept that if it lets me get to Sokolov"

"What happened?"

"Sarah worked for us, for the Seekers. She was an ordinary mammal not like me or him, she worked in the city and provided on site intelligence for us. We worked together a few times and became good friends, a bit more than friends really. After Sokolov turned against us and I caused him to wear that mask he decided on some payback. He couldn't find me, but he found her. She wasn't at our usual meeting place for intell drops so I went to her apartment. The place was a mess, It had been ransacked and there was blood everywhere. I found her in the bedroom, he'd..."

He clenched his paws and the mug he was holding cracked,

"You're out for revenge"

"Damn right I am. I have a deal with Jack that I get Sokolov when this is over, nobody is going to stop me"

Many thoughts ran through Claire's head after hearing this. She knew Jack well and he played people all the time, he would hold up his end of the deal so long as Max held up his. But what happens when he's dealt with Sokolov, Hatred is a useful motivator but would he then turn that against them, could they still keep Max in line or would he go off the rails? Just then her phone rang, she knew from the ringtone that it was Jack and she answered it without looking at the screen,

"Yeah?...Where?...Alright we'll be there ASAP"

"What is it?"

"There's been another incident"


	7. Chapter 7

Sirens rang out across the city as large numbers of emergency vehicles raced to their destinations, Claire weaved in and out of traffic at speed, the cruisers radio sounded dire and she kept her foot as close to the floor as possible. As she passed a police checkpoint, that was evacuating mammals who had been on the beach near the abandoned railyard, she and Max could see a towering column of thick black smoke rising high into the sky, engulfing the main line leading to Bunny Burrow. She rounded the bend and stopped her cruiser behind a fleet of other emergency vehicles and the two got out, they could tell they were at least half a mile from the railyard. An army of emergency personnel were rushing around, fire crews were unravelling hoses and everyone was putting on gloves and other protective gear. They moved through the mass of mammals and stepped into the back of a big rig truck that had the ZPD shield painted on the side and Mobile Command Unit written below it, an officer tried to stop them entering the vehicle but as soon as she showed her badge he backed off. Inside were several mammals, most were working computers or giving orders over the radio, two however stood out from everyone else. Stood next to a table was a warthog in fire overalls and a lion in a police uniform that was different to the others and he was barking orders into another radio that was sat on the table.

"I don't care that it's rush hour. I need the freeway clear for additional units, get it done!"

He threw the handset onto the table as Max and Claire walked over to them. Max stood back a little and let Claire handle it,

"Captain"

The lion turned and looked at her, he was obviously frustrated but he kept himself calm when he talked to her,

"Are you supposed to be here?"

"We're Agents Schwartzpelz and Langdon with ZBI section 12"

"Finally, we've had our paws tied while waiting for you. I'm Captain Locke, this is fire chief Tuskson from station seven"

"What have you got Captain?"

"90 minutes ago we received several calls about an explosion and gunfire at the old railyard just down the road form here. Since then the fire at the site has been raging out of control"

"How come the fire crews are up here and not down there?"

The warthog leant on the table and pointed to the map of the area that was on it,

"There's toxic smoke pouring out of there, we're trying to find the source but we can't pour water on it until we can identify it, the best we can do at the moment is stop it spreading from the building. I have a large capacity tanker bringing a specialist foam down to suffocate it, as well as a hazmat team to identify the source, but they're stuck back on 60th freeway amongst the traffic, they're an hour away at the very least"

"I have the highway division clearing a route for them. Right now the weather is on our side and it's blowing most of the smoke out to see, but if the wind changes direction we could be in trouble."

"What's wrong with the smoke?"

"It's toxic, I've got two officers in the hospital after they breathed in whatever is burning"

Claire pulled out her phone,

"I'll call my superiors, see if we can get extra units to help"

Claire called Jack, as she and the captain tried to organise a way of getting the fire crew through the freeway something caught Max's attention, a familiar smell coming form outside the truck. He started sniffing at the air and he followed the scent outside, the trail lead him to a small group of firefighters sat on the steps of a fire truck, their protective clothes were scorched and they were pouring bottles of water over their heads and washing their faces with it, they looked like they had been through hell and a paramedic was looking over them. Max walked over to them and waited for the paramedic to finish before talking to one of them, a boar in his early thirties.

"Did you just come from the railyard?"

"Yeah"

"What's it like?"

"Like a warzone. That smoke is ridiculously thick, it's like tar. We found two bodies and a load of bullet casings"

"The fire, is it contained?"

"I think so, we sprayed water around the building so any fuel should be too wet to ignite, but it's hotter than any fire I've seen before."

The firefighter pointed to the smoke pillar as Claire came out of the truck looking for Max.

"You can't see it from here but the bridge is cracked to hell and the track has melted. Whatever's burning in that warehouse is unlike anything I've encountered before."

"This is going to sound like a strange question, but when you were in there did you smell anything unusual?"

The firefighters looked at each other for a moment.

"Yeah..Yeah like a sickly sweet smell in the background, it makes your throat scratchy"

"Thanks for the info, if you've got any drink some soda it'll get rid of the scratchy feeling. And don't go back in for a while"

Max turned and almost bumped into Claire,

"Where have you been Max?"

"Getting intell, C'mon"

He headed back into the truck and straight to the table,

"Chief Tuskson you need to stop your guys from spraying water around the railyard"

"What? Why?"

"The stuff that's burning in the warehouse it acts like napalm, you're giving it a surface to spread on"

"You know what it is?"

"Yes, one of your crews just came back, the information they gave me fits"

"So what is it"

"It's something called orange sunder, the only way to extinguish it is to smother it"

"The foam trucks still thirty minutes away even with the freeway being clear"

"Your crew also said the bridge is badly damaged, it's cracked and melting in places"

" I hope the tanker is carrying enough foam then, our other option was going to be dumping a load from the bridge. Excuse me I need to see my crew"

Tuskson grabbed is chiefs helmet of the table and made sure it was attached firmly before heading out of the truck, Captain Locke picked up a phone from a receiver in the wall and dialled a number, he asked to be transferred to an extension number then put his paw over the mic,

"I've never heard of orange sunder"

"That's because it's classified"

"This has something to do with the raid on the terrorist house this morning doesn't it"

Claire placed the back of her paw against Max's chest, stopping him as he was about to talk,

"Sorry Captain but that's classified to Ultra Violet level, our involvement here is strictly need to know"

She turned and headed out of the door, Max followed her leaving an annoyed lion behind them,

"Where are we heading Claire?"

"To find protective clothing for us, you want to see the crime scene when the Hazmat team arrives don't you?"

"I like the way you think"

* * *

They rummaged around the fire trucks and eventually found protective gear and respirators that fit them, soon enough a cacophony of sirens in the distance signalled the arrival of help, and sure enough a large convoy of vehicles arrived. It took a few minutes of organisation and arguing with Chief Tuskson but Claire and Max managed to hitch a ride down to the yard in the back of the hazmat truck with the other rescue workers. A three truck convoy consisting of the Hazmat truck, a large tanker truck and a large fire truck that would spray the foam rolled down the road towards the yard, as they moved along the road the air darkened considerably and they quickly found themselves driving through a dense fog, one of the mammals from the team that doused the area in water was with them and he taped Max on the shoulder to get his attention,

"This fog has spread quickly since we were at the warehouse. What is this stuff?"

"Sorry kid, can't tell you."

One of the other fighters turned his head round to them,

"What's with the smell?"

"It's bad news. Don't take your mask off, you wont last long"

"That's really reassuring"

The trucks came to a stop and the crew began setting up the tanker and pump, the area looked like they were in a wildfire, thick smoke made it difficult to see more than a couple of meters in front of them and the fire was raging inside with such veracity that it could plainly be seen wherever they stood. It roared like a caged animal and the flames whipped back and forth far more than any conventional fire. As the firefighters started to spray foam on the building Max and Claire began investigating what they could, they each took a large LED flash light and started sweeping the area. With the pump unit running it was hard to hear each so they tuned their radios to a private channel to make communication easier. Even though the torches were powerful they still couldn't see more than ten meters in front of them, but that was enough to discover a smashed SUV laying on it's side with a dead antelope next to it. It was lying on it's back, it's head slumped against the underside of the SUV, bullet holes riddled it's body and there were several bullet casings around it. Max crouched down and pushed it's right eyelid open, it's eye looked normal so he let it go. With the flash light he could see singe marks on it's fur near the bullet wounds.

"Shot at close range"

"Max. Over here"

He looked over to see Claire stood just the other side of the SUV with her flash light shinning somewhere beyond it. He walked around and stood next to her, what lie before them was horrific. Three mammals lay on the floor with large chunks of their bodies ripped apart and covered in claw and teeth marks, horrendously mutilated with one of the bodies having been torn in half, it's entrails dragged across the parking lot. Dozens of bullet casings scattered in a large pool of blood around them, a forth corpse lay on it's front a couple of meters away, it was a wolf and was mostly intact except for it's head that had a large hole in the back of it. Claire made a retching sound and doubled over as she coughed a few times, it took her a minute but she soon cleared her throat and stood back up taking a few deep breathes.

"You're first time seeing something like this?"

"Sort of. I've seen and killed mammals on deployment before, but I've never seen anyone...shredded like them. Sorry, I'm being stupid"

"Don't apologise. Everyone has something that effects them, regardless of their experience. Turned my stomach a bit the first time I saw something similar"

"So what's your weakness?"

"I'll let you know when I find out"

Cautiously Max rolled the wolf over as Claire kept a gun trained on it, there was a chunk of flesh in it's teeth and it's claws were saturated with blood. Max peeled back the wolfs eyelids to see that they were solid yellow, Claire was about to shoot it when Max grabbed the barrel of the gun and lowered it.

"Claire. He's already dead"

"Are you sure?"

He could tell there was a slight hint of panic in her voice, he knew it was normal for mammals who had first met a Thirin puppet to feel panicky for a few days after. He let go of her gun and put his paw on her shoulder gently,

"I'm sure. He's been shot in the head, he isn't getting back up"

"Okay"

"Well any doubt of Sokolov's involvement has gone out the window"

He shone the flash light back and forth around the parking lot,

"What is it?"

"We have bullet casings, but no guns. These guys were geared up"

"So?"

"So someone stuck around after and cleared up, were there any reports of vehicles leaving the area after the blast?"

"No, the CCTV that Captain Locke recovered from traffic cams shows nothing entering or exiting until first responders arrived"

"So where'd they go? It's a mile and a half to the nearest road and a ninety foot drop off the cliff from what the officers were saying"

"There has to be another route. I have an idea"

Claire dashed off towards the fire crew and Max followed, the sound of the pumping unit was almost deafening and she had to grab the arm of the boar from the first team who was monitoring the pump to get his attention and she had to shout to be heard.

"You said the smoke was clearer earlier"

"Yeah it was just around the building"

"Did you see where the line from the building went, which direction?"

"Yeah, follow me"

They slowly made their way through the thick smoke, after a few minutes they reached a set of rail lines running parallel with each other, old train cars sat rusting on the tracks, their broken windows letting the smoke permeate the interior. The boar shone his flash light to a bend in the tracks that lead off into the smoke,

"That end leads the the warehouse, you cant see it cause of the smoke but there are dozens of sidings."

"Thanks, we'll take it from here"

The boar turned and headed back to the group, Max stood next to Claire,

"What you thinking?"

"This is a rail yard, but there's no rail line along the road, so how do they get in? Maybe they followed the tracks out of here"

Max shone his flash light around, a glint caught his eye and he focused the light on it.

"How long has this place been abandoned?"

"Decades by the looks of things"

"Those tracks there are shiny, something passed over them recently"

They followed the tracks that were missing rust, it leaded them a long way from the warehouse and across several signal points, but it eventually lead them to a single set of tracks that headed away from the others. The smoke showed no sign of dissipating and following the tracks was slow going, it took them several minutes and they were far enough away from the pump that they could hear each other without using their radios. The smoke suddenly cleared and they found themselves at the entrance to an unlit tunnel heading down beneath the city, a strong breeze moved through the tunnel towards them blowing the smoke away. Along side the track was a wide dirt path with deep impressions in it.

"Looks like tire marks, something heavy came through here"

"A bottle of whiskey says we find something in here"

"You haven't paid me for the last one yet"

"I'll find a way. C'mon"

The pair made sure their guns were ready and headed into the tunnel.

* * *

AN- Sorry for the delay and short chapter, there's been a bereavement in my family and i didn't feel like writing. I will try and make up for it with the next one.


	8. Chapter 8

The rail tunnel was in a poor state, it's brick lining was cracked and missing sections and water ran down them, the old roadway that ran along the side of tracks for maintenance vehicles was reduced to little more than dirt and there was no source of light other than the flashlights that Max and Claire were carrying. As they shone the flashlights along the remains of the road, as they headed deeper into the tunnel, they could see deep grooves in the road. Max stopped and knelt down next to one of them and took a photo with his phone,

"This is a fresh track, the water hasn't got into them yet. Whatever made this was large and heavy by the looks of things"

"There's more over here, it splits into two sets"

"Two heavy vehicles, large wheel base"

"Some sort of truck?"

"Maybe"

He stood up and pointed the flashlight down the tunnel, the light shone for quite a way but it still ended up in darkness

"This tunnel could go on for miles, any idea where it leads?"

"No idea, hasn't been used in years it could lead anywhere"

"Call it in, if we're going to find where this goes I'd at least like someone to know where we're headed. Maybe they can close off any exits"

Claire nodded and took out her radio, the signal in the tunnel was very weak and it took a couple of attempts to get through, but she managed to contact the control room. As she informed them of what they were doing a sound caught Max's attention, believing it came from further down the tunnel he walked a few meters away from Claire and listened out for it again. After a few seconds a dull pinging noise of metal on metal echoed off the walls, another couple of seconds later and he could hear muffled music.

"Claire, listen"

She turned the radio down and the two stood in silence, it didn't take long for him to see the look of realisation on her face as she heard it as well. The two of them hurried down the tunnel in the direction of the music, they had found a large chamber with a fork in the tunnel that split in four different directions and the track split down two of them. The sound echoed and made it difficult to pinpoint the direction, but the vehicle tracks and rust-less rail-line both lead into a single tunnel and so they headed down that one. The music was growing louder as the air in the tunnel was slowly getting warmer, the protective suits that they were wearing were getting uncomfortable and they had already removed the respirators that were now sitting in the suits belt. They were contemplating on ditching the suits entirely when they spotted a large metal rail box car that was covered in rust about 100 meters in front of them, it sounded like the music was coming from inside the box car through a letter box sized window above the end door.

They snuck up to the box car making sure that noone was around it and listened closely, they could both hear the music clearly but they couldn't hear anyone inside. Claire clambered onto the handrail next to the door and balanced on it while leaning on Max to keep herself steady as she peered through the window. Claire climbed down and whispered,

"There's an inner door a couple of feet away with frosted glass, can't see anyone or any lights on"

"Be ready just in case"

Max tested the door handle and it gave a gentle click showing it to be unlocked, with their guns raised and ready they carefully entered the box car. The inner door was slightly ajar and an unusual musty smell was coming from inside, with no sound of movement from inside Max hit the light switch on the wall. Both of them were taken aback by what they saw, the inside of the box car had been turned into a laboratory, a pressurised vat with pipes feeding into it from various tanks lead to a large machine which had been smashed. On a table in the middle of the room was an MP3 player linked to a speaker and next to it was a business envelope with Max's name printed on it.

"What the. He planned for you to find this?"

"Or was this to be delivered later?"

He turned the music off and tore the envelope open, shaking the contents out into his paw, a small clear case with a micro SD card fell out along with flip phone and what looked like a credit card. He hesitated for a moment and he looked sad, he pocketed the card before Claire could say anything and took out his phone, slotted the card into the side and loaded it.

"Bloody hell"

He showed the phone to her, the photo on the screen was of the two of them in their protective gear as Claire radioed in what they were doing only fifteen minutes earlier,

"Let's go, we can catch them"

"Max we don't know where they are. And from, what we've seen they have vehicles. We're on foot"

"Doesn't mean we can't try"

Just then there was a load thud that echoed from the tunnel, they rushed outside just as there was another loud thud and the revving of an engine.

"The hell was that?"

"Lets find out"

Although Claire was a foot taller than Max and very athletic she was finding it difficult to keep up with Max who showed no sign that he was struggling to maintain his speed. A couple of minutes later they could hear mammals talking ahead of them and they slowed to a stop. They could see two open backed trucks loaded with metal pipes and four large wombles in blue boiler suits and hard hats taking pipes off a stack from the floor and loading them onto the trucks. The trucks had their lights on and so they turned their flashlights off, the wombles didn't seem to have noticed them.

"Do you think they're part of this?"

"Let's not take any chances, you go left I'll go right"

They snuck closer and when they had got within thirty meters of the group they rushed in with Claire going around the left side of the truck and Max on the right,

"Federal Agents put your paws where I can see them, do it, do it now!"

The wombles jumped out of their skins and dropped the pipes with a loud clang, they all threw their paws up in the air and looked like deer in headlights. Three of the wombles looked unable to move as they stared between Max and Claire as they had their guns trained on them, but the last one started stammering as the adrenaline started rushing through him.

"Easy easy we're construction workers we're supposed to be here, I'm Daniel the site foreman we haven't done anything wrong"

Max lowered his gun slightly,

"What are you doing down here?"

"We're repairing the pipes that lead to the temperature control walls, it's the reason they aren't working and why it's so hot down here"

"How long have you been down here?"

"All day, we were just cleaning up"

They both lowered their guns, the wombles breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. Claire continued questioning them as Max looked into their trucks cab.

"All day? Did you see any other vehicles come this way?"

"About ten or fifteen minutes ago, two large box trucks, didn't think much of it as there are other crews working here"

Max pointed to something in the truck and called to them,

"Does your dash cam run constantly?"

"Yeah, I can get it up on my phone"

Daniel quickly took his phone out and tapped away on it, moments later he handed it to Max. The video was taken in hourly segments so he loaded the last hours one and skipped to the rough time, sure enough it showed two large grey box trucks drove past giving a clear view of of the cab in each of them, and sat in the pas anger seat of the first truck was Sokolov.

"He was here Claire"

He quickly copied the video to his phone and handed it back to Daniel.

"Where does this tunnel come out?"

"17th and Dune, right behind the recycling plant"

"Could they get out in fifteen minutes?"

"Yeah it's only a ten minute drive"

Claire pulled out her radio and tried to get through but all she got was static.

"We're too deep I cant get a signal"

"You can use our radio, we work underground a lot so it's fitted with a powerful booster"

"Thank you"

She stepped into the cab and went about getting a message relayed to the control room as Max apologised to Daniel and his crew for the shock. Although it was a big shock to them they were good enough about it and even offered them a lift to the surface.

* * *

Twenty minutes later the trucks emerged from the tunnel to be met with a large group of roughly twenty ZPD officers who had secured the entrance. A CSI mobile lab truck was also waiting there with Vicki, Nick and Judy stood next to it. Claire and Max thanked Daniel then headed over to them, Nick had a bandage on the left side of his face but he other than that he seemed to be alright after being thrown about like a rag doll by the bull puppet, Judy also seemed to be fine which was a relief to Max and Claire. After giving Vicki a quick brief on what they had found in the box car they left it to her and her team to examine the scene, leaving the four of them heading to Judy's unmarked car with her bounding ahead of everyone. Once in the car Max looked at Nick in the rear view mirror,

"You alright Nick?"

"Yeah, had to have some stitches so they put this on so I don't catch it while it heals. Going to have a sick scar to add to my already handsome physique"

Judy rolled her eyes and looked at Max,

"This is how you know he's fine"

"Well that's good to know"

"We got a briefing from Captain Locke before we picked you up, said you found something called orange sunder?"

"It's an incendiary, real name has 22 syllables so we nicknamed it. It's very powerful and extremely difficult to put out as it burns at extremely high temperatures"

"I've never heard of it, is it something from your world?"

"Yes, we developed it to combat Thirin, drop it on one and it will weaken it considerably though it still isn't enough to kill one"

"So how has he got it here? You guys didn't arrive with any"

"It's relatively easy to make, it has about ten ingredients but you only have to mix the correct quantities and let it dry out into a powder, I could make it in a couple of hours if I had the right stuff"

"What stuff are we talking about here, anything we can track?"

"I don't know, most of it is over the counter stuff, we developed it so it could be made by field agents or military units that were far from resupply lines by scavenging household products. If he's purchased large enough quantities then you could probably trace it, bleach and super glue are two of the main things used"

"What quantities are we talking here?"

"Ten gallons of bleach would give you enough raw material to make a kilo of explosive, I'll list all the items for you"

"That's a start at least"

"Once we get back I'll have Snarlov and Wolford run a search for them"

Max held up is phone,

"We also need to find out what else is on this SD card, I think Jack would like to see this"

* * *

The unmarked cruiser slowly drove through the streets of the small central island in the the centre of the city that housed Peak Street station, the second largest station in the city that linked three of the cities rail lines together. The island located in downtown Zootopia sat between the borders of Sahara Square, Tundratown and the Rainforest districts and was where many of the cities largest corporations had their headquarters and it was a hugely busy area with mammals of all varieties heading to and fro at all hours of the day, so when a large black SUV pulled into the underground parking lot of a tower block it went completely unnoticed by everyone, even when the roller shutters closed behind it. The SUV pulled into a spare parking space and shut off, Claire, Max, Nick and Judy got out and headed into a waiting elevator and closed the door, Claire scanned her ID card and the lift descended. The building was listed as having two basement floors, but even when those two floors came and went on the counter it kept descending for another thirty seconds before coming to a gentle stop. The door opened up into a corridor that was lined with plain grey reinforced concrete, it was cold and echoey and the others had to follow Claire as they had no idea where they were going. Nick shivered a little,

"How deep are we?"

"Eight storeys below ground level, this place was built during the cold war to act as a command centre in case of a missile attack. This one has been re-purposed for us as a listening post"

Max raised an eyebrow,

"This one?"

"There were several facilities built below ground during the period, we're slowly reclaiming them as and when we get the budget"

They passed by an open doorway where a small crew of mammals in high visibility jackets and hard hats were drilling holes into the wall and fitting wall panels,

"Is it a good idea for us to be here with them still building?"

"It's only the residential section that's still being constructed, the work areas were finished and fully equipped last month. We were hoping to wait until it was fully complete before moving in here but with events being what they were Eagle pushed us forward"

"Eagle?"

"That's the codename for the council made up of government agency heads, it's not just the ZBI that's interested in keeping things under wraps, nobody wants word of this getting out and causing a panic"

At the end of the corridor was a very heavy looking metal door with a keycard reader, flanking the door either side of it were two large warthogs in full tactical gear and armed with assault rifles. They didn't move an inch when Claire swiped her card and unlocked the door. Inside was a huge hall which was a hive of activity, the mammals from the academy were here along with several others, all of whom were coordinating with each other between the large electronic displays on the walls, one of which had a large picture of Sokolov on it with Wanted written above it. It reminded Max of a sci-fi movie with all the computers and other electronics but that was the nature of the work that they did.

Claire lead the group to an office at the back of the hall and opened the door, inside Jack was sat at his desk, he was in the middle of a conversation on his desk phone using the hands free and he lifted his paw up to show the group to keep quiet for a moment. A male voice with a hint of an Australian accent was currently talking,

"The files will be with you later in the day, remember it's your eyes only"

"I understand sir, my primary agents have just returned sir I'll have to call you back"

He pressed a button and ended the call while beckoning them in, they closed the door behind them. Jack took a brown bag out of a draw in his desk and placed it on the edge closest to Max,

"I wanted you to have this earlier but circumstances being what they are I didn't have a chance, this will help you blend in with everyone else. Now, tell me what you found"

It took over an hour to give a detailed account of what had happened and Jack recorded everything for his records, it also gave Nick and Judy the opportunity to catch up themselves as they had only left the hospital just before picking Max and Claire up from the tunnel. Once they had finished and Jack was satisfied with what was said he turned the recorder off. His voice was dull and he looked a bit down.

"What you've said fits with preliminary reports of what I've received. There's an office two rooms down that has been assigned to all of you, all the information that we've accrued so far is available for you there. Can you stay for a minute please Claire"

They all looked at each other with a bit of worry but they left regardless. Once the door was closed Jack gestured with his paw for Claire to take a seat which she did.

"Claire that was Director Samuels I was talking with earlier, there have been grumblings in high command. I'll let you guess as to what it's about"

Claire visibly deflated,

"Have they decided what's going to happen?"

"They're arguing amongst themselves, Samuels has every faith in my decision and is sending the necessary documents. I need you to fill them out when they arrive, do not let anyone else know"

* * *

Claire slapped her face a few times to stop herself looking down and opened the door to their office, inside the Max Nick and Judy were already reading through a huge pile of documents both physical and digital, there were two double desks and a coffee machine, other than that the room was bland but noone minded. Claire picked up the top file from the stack and started looking through it, it was thicker than a brick and was an extremely detailed report from the CSI team about the house that was raided the day before. She flicked through the report to where a sticky note had been inserted, she read it aloud as if forgetting that there were others around her,

"Unknown orange powder found in garage tested, result reveals potential for compound to be explosive in nature. Would have been nice to know that earlier"

Two twenty dollar bills landed on the open file and she looked to her side to see Max who patted her shoulder,

"We'll get him"

"Where did you get this?"

"Jack's present"

He picked the bag up and opened it, inside was a ZBI ID, drivers license, social security, bank card and a small bundle of notes.

"Now I can really blend in, and pay for my own food"

She chuckled and seemed to perk up a bit,

"So what have we got so far?"

Nick put his mug of coffee on the desk and lean back in his chair,

"Well, we've got daily reports from the monitoring stations around the city, all have come back clean for anything related to Sokolov. There's also full reports from the house you raided, the incident at the morgue, and one from Captain Locke who is rather pissed about not being allowed access to everything, not to mention every tiny bit of documented evidence that has been recovered so far"

Max looked at his phone and the phone from the bag that was addressed to him,

"Not every bit"

He took the SD card out of the phone and plugged it into his computer, there were four files on the card, the photo of the pair in the tunnel, a file that the computer didn't recognise as well as two videos. They all went around his desk to get a look as he loaded the first one.

A view from atop one of the hills overlooking the maintenance warehouse at the railyard showed a sniper rifle laying on the grass in front of the camera, a grey SUV and green landrover pull into the parking lot, they come to a stop and eleven heavily armed mammals get out, six of them head inside while five of them stay outside covering the doors. Less than a minute later there is a loud explosion that blows out the glass windows and a section of the roof in the centre of the building, the four mammals outside are stunned and yell to each other in confusion. The sniper rifle is raised and a single muffled shot rings out, a wolf puts his paw to his neck and stumbles for a moment. Seconds later he charges at an antelope which was the closest mammal, he slams into it sending him flying into the side of the SUV knocking it over onto it's side, the wolf then attacks the rest of the mammals, dozens of gunshots ring out as the wolf charges each mammal in turn ripping chunks out of them with his claws and teeth, it doesn't seem to react to the bullets at all. When the last mammal eventually gets killed as the wolf rips a mouthful of flesh from it's throat the rifle is fired again and a puff of red erupts from the back of the wolfs head dropping him to the ground before the video stops. The room was silent for a moment before Max muttered,

"Well now we know how they died"

"What a way to go"

He loaded the second video which showed the inside of the red box car from the tunnel. The machine that was connected to the vat and tanks, It was wiring away and pouring a large amount of yellow liquid into a metal drum, the hands of a wolf came into the shot with a dart that was dipped into the liquid and a small amount was drawn into it. The hands then screwed the dart into an empty rifle casing before it was loaded into a magazine that was placed on the table that had an open business envelope with Max written on it, the camera focused on a plain piece of paper that was next to the envelope that had an eleven digit number written on it. An unmistakable voice began to calmly talk as the camera panned around to the exit,

"Max I'm sure you'll understand what it is that I'm doing eventually, and I hope that we can put our past behind us"

The camera moved out into the tunnel, two large box trucks were parked up on the road next to the track, he walked up to the rear of the closest one and rolled up the shutter. The inside was full of metal drums like the one in the box car. Wires ran between each of them and to a black box sat in the front of the pile.

"As you can see I don't play softly, I'll be in touch"

the video stopped. Judy's ears fell flat against her head,

"It's the nighthowlers again"

"That what?"

"When I first started as a police officer there was an incident where a plant known as the nighthowlers were being weaponized, any mammal that came in contact with it reverted to a feral state, it took us a long time to find a cure for it"

"Can you still get hold of the plants?"

"No, they were deliberately made extinct as it was too easy to manufacture"

"However he's made it doesn't matter at the moment, if a small dart full was enough of change that wolf god knows what ma truck full of it can do"

Claire picked up her desk phone and pressed a quick dial button.

"Jack you need to come to our office, we've found something bad"

* * *

A few minutes later Jack had come to their office and had seen the videos, his face was dire and he stood silent for a moment as the others waited.

"I'll prioritise the search for the trucks, we're linked in with every CCTV camera in the city but that only covers 65 percent of the city, it'll take time."

"Times something we might not have"

Everyone looked at Max,

"Whys that?"

"He has a weapon, he isn't going to sit back and wait to use it."

"So what do you suggest?"

"Sokolov makes a statement with everything he does, he'll target something large, something with a lot of mammals present. Are there any events going on in the next few days? A baseball game or concert or something similar?"

Nick let out an strained chuckle,

"Worst time of the year. We've got a football game in the Rainforest District, a huge reunion gig and our yearly carnival parade through Savanna Central, all due within the next week."

"Christ he could target any of those, thousands of mammals will be attending"

Jack looked contemplative for a moment before picking the desk phone up and holding down a button separate from the others, his voice was booming over the PA system in the base,

"Attention this is director Savage, all section chiefs are to report to my office immediately for urgent assignments"

He put the phone down and turned to Claire,

"I'll task every asset we have with locating the truck and searching the event sites, in the mean time I want your team to do what you can to find out who these other mammals at the warehouse are. If there's another group at play here I want to know who they are"

"Understood, you let us know as soon as you find anything"

Jack headed out of the room, five mammals in suits were seen walking past their office towards Jacks for the meeting. Max scratched the underside of his chin and looked around each of them,

"Anybody got any ideas? I don't know anyone in this city"

Nick ans Judy looked at each other, Nick stepped forward,

"I may have an idea, it's a long shot"

"Right now I'll go for anything"

"One of the lions that went inside the warehouse from the video, we recognise him. I had run ins with him years ago when Judy and I were with the traffic department. He ran with a crew for Marcus Hyde, a local mob boss. He may still have been with him working for him"

"That's one hell of a stretch Wilde"

"Maybe not, criminals are creatures of habit, they don't tend to stray far unless they've done something serious to offend their employer. It's worth a shot"

"Alright then, any idea on how we approach this, we cant just go up to Hyde and ask him directly"

Nick and Judy gave a rye smile,

"We've got a friend who might be able to help with that"


	9. Chapter 9

Evening was setting in and mammals across the city were getting ready to enjoy the nightlife of the city, many restaurants and bars were quickly filling up with mammals eager to forget about the days work and to live in a different world for a few hours before having to return to the daily grind. For Claire's group however there was no time to go an enjoy themselves, they were currently sat in Judy's unmarked squad car with Nick in the front passenger seat and Max and Claire sat in the back. Max stared out of the window at an area named Little Rodentia that, even for it's small size, still looked like it was bustling with a party atmosphere as coloured lights lit up the streets as they passed by. Talking to himself Max said,

"I could do with a beer"

"Funny you should say that, our friend is working at a club a couple of blocks from here, that's where we're headed"

"Who is this friend of yours?"

"His names Finnick, we used to work together before I joined the ZPD. He found himself out of work a few years ago, he's good at working bars and managed to get a place in one of Don Hyde's clubs"

"I'm surprised you didn't persuade him to leave after knowing who it was he was working for"

"It's actually helped us a lot, he's a confidential informant which is why we aren't wearing our duty clothes"

True enough they looked nothing like they usually did, Nick had a ghastly Hawaiian shirt on with brown pants and a pair of aviator glasses, Judy was wearing a purple top and blue jeans, Claire had a black t-shirt and black jeans while Max was wearing a white shirt and loose fitting black jacket and black pants with a pair of sunglasses on. Max looked at Nick and shook his head,

"Don't clubs have dress codes, we could get in but" he gestured to Claire and Judy "But how are you going to get in with that shirt?"

Nick looked offended for a moment,

"I'll have you know that my sense of style is impeccable, besides as long as you aren't making a fool of yourself they'll let most mammals in"

Judy chimed in,

"The place is a drugs den, we've been trying to shut Hyde down for years but we can't get him directly, it's always and underling. The whole place is monitored by his private security so try not to draw too much attention while we talk with Finnick"

"I can do that"

Max looked to his side and watched as Claire, who had been sitting silently on the journey over, took the pill bottle she had been given by the doctor at the hospital and swallowed another dose.

"You alright Claire? I don't want you to go passing out on us in there"

"Don't worry about me I'm good. If Hyde has private security monitoring the place how are you going to get a chance to speak with your friend?"

"Finnick doesn't just work the bar, he's also responsible for greeting high payers and VIPs, we'll get a private room to talk in, just play along"

* * *

Judy found a place to park the car in an alley just across the street and the four of them got out, this was Nick's element and they followed him across the street to a huge multi-storey building with flashing lights and electro music blasting from speakers on the walls that kept the line of over a hundred mammals who were queuing to get in entertained as a large neon sign of the letter V pulsed away in multicolours. A red rope hung between two posts and a gruff looking elephant stood with a clipboard as he watched the queue to make sure everything was kept in order while two black bears guarded the large double doors to the club, with a cool demeanour Nick climbed the few short steps to the doors with the group in tow and held a black card in his fingers nonchalantly, one of the bears took it from him and gave it a quick look over before handing it back and opening the door for them.

The club was split over several floors with the main entrance being above the main section overlooking it. The music was so much louder inside and the patrons were wall to wall as they vied for the attention of the bar staff, the dancing girls in cages hanging from the ceilings or for space on the dance floor as they yelled happily. A podium stood next to the large archway that lead to the access to the various floors and a beautiful arctic fox in a tight fitting silver dress was stood at it, she batted her eyes at Nick as the group approached and spoke with a voice that sounded like honey.

"Well hello handsome, how can I help you tonight?"

"I'm afraid that you wont be Candace"

A very deep voice came from behind her and she turned to see a tiny long eared fox in a black suit with white shirt and red tie walk from behind her up to Nick,

"These here are Ace club members. It's good to see you again sir, would you like your regular private room?"

"I would"

They followed the small fox into a corridor from the landing overlooking the dance floor, as they left the lobby Max caught sight of the arctic fox who had a really pissed off look on her face that she had been beaten to a possible tip. The corridor was lined with doors leading off to private rooms, each had a member of club staff stood outside ready to answer the beck and call of the patrons in the rooms. One of the rooms in the middle was empty and they headed inside and closed the door, the interior was plush and overly furnished with expensive wood and metal furniture that would have cost a fortune, it even had a small jacuzzi next to the glass window that went from floor to ceiling and overlooked the dance floor below. Max peered out the window at the mammals below and let out a whistle, it was quite impressive even if it was run by a mob boss.

"What can I get for you to drink tonight?"

"It's alright Finnick we're on business, you can drop the act"

The small fox relaxed his posture and loosened his tie slightly,

"Thank fuck for that, the thought of pandering to your ass all night wasn't something I was looking forward to. So what you want?"

"We need information, not sure if you're gonna be able to help but we're low on options"

"Must be serious if you're coming here without arranging a meet first. I'll grab some drinks so as not to raise suspicion, then we can talk"

I took about ten minutes but Finnick came back with a tray full of beer bottles he slid the tray onto a table and handed one to Nick and Judy before taken two over to Claire and Max,

"Don't worry, they're non alcoholic. I keep a few hidden away for when these two are on duty and need to talk"

Max took a sip, his nose wrinkled and he shook his head slightly,

"Where did you get this, it's nothing like real beer"

"You can have water if you want"

"I'll make do"

"Good" Finnick turned to face Nick and Judy "So what's got you riled up enough to come over without letting me know first, you know there's a risk every time you come over"

"I do, and I'm sorry but we're on a tight schedule"

"And these two?"

"ZBI"

"You're working with the Feds? You finally going after Hyde?"

"Depends. You remember a lion that ran with one of Hyde's crews years ago, goes by the name of Adam Mane?"

"Adam, shit yeah I know him he was in here earlier today. He came in with about a dozen other guys, they hung out at the bar while their crew leader was having words with Hyde, they took off pretty quick afterwards"

"Do you know where they were going?"

"I don't know exactly, but I heard one of them say something about sorting out a powder supply. There's been talk for a few weeks about Hyde expanding his street power with a new drug, but the supplier's a freak and never delivered anything"

"What drug?"

"A new psycho thing, supposed to blow peoples minds, make em see weird shit"

"Any idea who the supplier is?"

"Saw him once a few months back, he's a wolf about the same size as your friend here but he had a metal mask on, wouldn't take it off even when William asked him to out of respect for Hyde. Guy gave me the creeps"

Max had put down his beer and had been listening with great interest,

"Sokolov was here working for Hyde? That doesn't make sense, Sokolov doesn't follow orders, not any more anyway"

Claire walked over next to Finnick,

"Does Hyde own an old railyard by any chance?"

"No but he does use one occasionally, he doesn't always buy places he just sends guys in and takes places he wants. He isn't subtle about it either he just takes, a lot of mammals are scared of him"

Max had a very determined and somewhat twisted look on his face,

"Is Hyde here?"

"Yeah, he's entertaining some of his _establishment_ piers"

"Then I say it's time to pay him a visit and find out exactly what he knows"

"Are you crazy? That mother-fuckers got a small army guarding him, not to mention he's likely to kill you when he finds out you're a Fed"

Judy put her arms up and posed a question,

"I'm all up for giving Hyde some justice, but don't we need a warrant. What can we do?"

"We don't need one, after his attack last week we've been given emergency powers, don't need a warrant"

"You guys are nuts, just let me get the fuck out of here before you start anything. And try not to shoot me or Candace, the entrance is downstairs behind the dance floor"

Finnick downed the last of his beer and left the room, they waited for a few minutes before leaving the room themselves. The four of them headed downstairs, with them not knowing how the guards would react to the crazy plan that Max somehow persuaded them to go along with they split up and took up positions in amongst the patrons that would give them the opportunity to lend help as quickly as possible if anything went south. They watched as Max moved through the crowd and opened the door to the staff area that Finnick had pointed out, inside were another two bears in suits. One of them put it's paw out to stop him but before he could say anything Max grabbed his paw and twisted it round at the same time as he drew his gun and put it against the bears chest, the other bear was stunned and didn't know weather he should draw his gun or not for fear of what Max would do.

"I'd like to speak to your boss" Max twisted his gun around in his paw and placed it in the bears open palm "Now"

* * *

Escorted by the two bears Max headed up to the fourth floor of the building, the entire place was decorated to a huge extend, a luxury red carpet lined the floor and the walls were covered in wood panelling with gold inlay. The others were still waiting on the dance floor but they were listening in on the microphone that was on Max, Judy was dancing with Nick so as not to stand out,

"How the hell did she know to bring a microphone with her, did she think it would come to this?"

"I don't think so, I think it was already there"

"What do you mean?"

"Remember what he is Judy, I bet Jack's bugged everything around him"

Her ears drooped,

"That's horrible, he thinks Claire brought it with her"

"I don't agree with it either, but it's not something we have a choice of. All we can do is play along"

Claire listened intently as she sat at the bar nursing a drink, thoughts ran through her head of exactly what Max was thinking by going in alone, but they had little choice at the moment as they desperately needed to find Sokolov, and as Max pointed out, if things did go south he had a higher chance of getting out unscathed.

Upstairs the bears were walking Max through a large number of mammals, mostly large predators in suits, towards a set of double doors that looked to be made of heavy reinforced metal that had been done up with a painting of a beautiful cheetah wearing a Chinese dress laying on a couch, it didn't do much for Max but to each their own.

The door was opened and a huge room lay behind it, plants and a large aquarium helped decorate them room that was already lavish in design, in the centre of the room was a rectangular table that sat twenty mammals dressed in posh suits and dresses and sat at the head of the table was a massive elephant in a white suit. They were all laughing and enjoying themselves as they ate a meal that would be fit for royalty, one of the bears stood next to Max by the door as the other went over an whispered into the elephants ear, he pulled Max's gun out of his pocket and placed it on the table next to him. A smile came over his face and he took a sip from his glass of wine, he looked more predatory than some of the lions and tigers that were in the room and he waved the bear and Max forward. As they walked towards them the elephant spread his arms out and spoke with a bellowing voice, scarred from years of chain smoking, that gathered the attention of the mammals at the banquette,

"Friends and colleagues, for a long time this city has seen far too few mammals with any backbone except for us."

Many of them raised their glasses as others laughed heartily in agreement,

"Now this wolf here has walked in to my club out of the blue and demanded to see me, he even struck on of my guards. You have balls boy, tell me why I should let you keep them"

The group was laughing still, Max walked towards him and took his phone out of his pocket,

"We have a mutual interest"

He put the phone on the table in front of the elephant with the video of the warehouse attack playing on it. It only took a couple of moments for the smile on the elephants face to drop and be replaced by a growing anger. When the video ended the elephant sat back in his chair and took another sip of his drink, the guests merriments quickly died down as they watched the elephant,

"Leave us"

The guests looked from one to another until the elephant roared,

"I said leave!"

There was a flurry as the guests scampered from the room with as much dignity as they could, they looked offended and gave stares of disgust towards Max but he kept a cool head and waited.

"Sit down"

The elephant took a cloth and wiped his mouth before tossing it onto the table,

"My name is Victor Hyde, do you know that name?"

"Yes"

"Then you know the power that I can wield and what I do to those that cross me. Now, who are you"

"My name is Langdon, other than that all you need to know is that I'm a concerned third party"

" You really do have brass balls withholding anything from me. Tell me how you got that video?"

"That video was left for me by someone we are both after, Joseph Sokolov"

"Well, Mr Langdon, what do you get out of this? Are you trying to bring me down?"

"To be perfectly honest I don't care what you have done, or what you represent in this city. My only concern is finding and neutralizing Sokolov"

"Then that makes two of us. He's caused me significant problems, and if that video is as real as it looks then he's also killed a good friend of mine and several loyal soldiers."

"He's threatened to kill many more, it's my job to bring him down permanently, to do that I need to know everything about him so that I can find him, that means I need to know what your involvement with him is"

"Do you even know what he can do? He is not your normal wolf"

Max cleared his throat and took his glasses off, folded them up and let them hand from the breast pocket of his jacket before looking Hyde in the eyes.

"Neither am I"

"hmmmm, you're like him. I don't know what you two are, but right now I don't think I care. I would like to see Sokolov fed to the sharks, and I think a large one is sat in front of me"

He took another sip from his glass and pushed the bottle towards Max who poured himself a small amount with a little difficulty as the bottle was much larger being made for and elephant, he thought it would be best to play along and he took a small sip as well to keep Hyde happy.

"One of my soldiers caught word three months ago about an up and coming crew who was looking to join a larger outfit, in exchange for protection, weapons and a small percentage of their earnings they were willing to manufacture and sell a new generation of street drugs. It promised to be cleaner and cheaper to manufacture than coke or heroin and pure enough to be smoked so that the rich kids who were scared of needles would still be interested, better yet it could be easily smuggled around the city as the cops didn't have any detection equipment for this new drug. The word about this crew was quickly spreading through the underworld and so I acted quickly to secure this crews loyalty, I made them produce a small amount of powder and ran a test with some junkies, the results were amazing, it was highly addictive and had them begging for more so badly that they were willing to trade anything for another high, so I gave them what they wanted. I struck a deal with their leader, Sokolov. In exchange for a monthly delivery of powder that he called blue tide I provided additional crew members, security and materials. It was projected that I would net an absolute fortune from this and secure far more territory from the other Dons, but he failed to deliver. Then yesterday the Feds raided one of the properties that I had provided for him, so I sent my underboss, William Stripe, to get him to sort out his mess. I didn't hear back from him, so I sent a crew to find out what had happened. You've seen the result"

He downed the glass of wine, took back the bottle from Max and filled his glass, he poured in far more than what Max had seen in there when he had arrived.

"Did you give him any other locations, safe houses or storage sites?"

"One, but I have a crew there waiting for him to come back. Nothing has been found and it looks like it was never used."

"If it's all the same with you I'd like to check myself, I have ways of finding things that others could easily overlook"

"I will let you investigate the location, do I have your word that any unrelated information be kept hidden?"

"If it doesn't lead me to Sokolov then you have my word"

"Good, good. It's adjacent the High Roads station in the meadow-lands district, look for a red bricked building. He was very fussy about the location when we were setting this up, he had initially demanded that it be set up in Tundratown, but that is the Big's territory and I do not wish for a war with them"

"Why Tundratown?"

"He wouldn't say, but High Roads is a stones throw away from the district border, you could easily cross it inside of fifteen minutes"

"Anything else you can add?"

"That's all I can give you, William was the one who dealt mostly with him after everything was arranged. Though William did say that he was ordering large quantities of unusual products for manufacturing the blue tide, cleaning products, glue, solvents generally, things of that nature"

"Bleach?"

"Yes, he complained once over dinner that it was a pain procuring the amount that Sokolov wanted, but I dismissed it, told him to provide whatever the wolf needed chemistry is not one of my strong points and all I could think about is what I could get out of this."

"Alright, that should help me."

"Mr Langdon, I should warn you, if you cross me I will find you and make you pay"

"If I crossed you Mr Hyde you wouldn't know until it was too late"

Max took a larger swig from his drink, picked up his gear and headed out of the room, leaving a rather wrathful elephant sitting alone in his hall as he contemplated what he had unwittingly helped create.

* * *

Max headed back down through the well soundproofed private area of the club an out onto the noisy dance-floor, as he headed through the door he almost walked into the bear who he had grabbed in order to get a meeting with Hyde, the bear too a large step to the side and gave him a wide berth, much to Max's amusement. He made his way through the hundreds of mammals in various states of inebriation and headed to the bar where he had agreed to meet with the rest of them and found Claire sat on a barstool with a drink in her paw, Nick and Judy were nearby listening in as they continued to keep a watchful eye for anything untoward.

"Did you get everything?"

"Yeah, was a little difficult to hear with all this noise, but we got it"

"We need to discuss some things, lets go"

They moved around the crowd and up the single flight of stairs to the entrance lobby, Finnick was chatting with Candace and seemed to have her wrapped around his finger letting them get out without her spotting them, Nick gave Finnick a playful wink as the arctic fox was almost hanging off him.

In the cruiser Max took his earpiece out and scratched where it had been, they were excellent pieces of kit, unnoticeable unless you knew what you were looking for but they were really uncomfortable.

"Right first things first, he mentioned a rival organisation, the Big's. What do you know about them?"

Nick and Judy sat quietly in the front as Claire explained, the pair were exchanging nervous glances at each other out the corner of their eyes.

"They're a crime family that controls the entirety of Tundratown's underworld, nothing happens in their territory without their knowledge. That's the story anyway."

"That could prove useful, any chance of getting a meeting with a representative of sorts, someone with decision making powers?"

"I don't know about that, Judy might be able to make a meeting possible but I don't think we'd get anywhere near one"

Judy and Nick's eyes went wide,

"Wha what? Me? I don't know what your on about, how could I possibly help out there? Right Nick?"

"Yeah I don't see how Judy could help you, sorry"

"I don't have time to beat around the bush here, if Max is right then we only have a couple of days before Sokolov attacks so every second counts. I've seen your files, I've seen the files of every member of section twelve, we know a hell of lot about your connections, I know full well that you're the godmother to Fru Fru Big's daughter but I don't care, organised crime is not my department, so lets not bullshit each other okay?!"

Claire's frustration was evident and it made Judy and Nick feel like they were kits being disciplined by a school teacher, even Max as taken aback by her outburst.

"I. I can ask Fru Fru if she knows anything about Sokolov, she's taking over more since her dad's health has declined. She won't talk to outsiders though"

There was a moment of silence in the car which was broken by Max taping on the seat separating him and Claire as he thought,

"Lets split up. You and Nick figure out what the Big's know while Claire and I check out the building on High Roads"

"Wow hold on, if Sokolov is in High Roads then that leaves you two without any support with Jack

allocating everything else to finding the trucks, one puppet kicked our asses, what the hell is he going to do to you to?"

"I understand your concern Nick, we'll just re-con it, if we find anything we'll call in the cavalry. Keep your radio on you, we may need your assistance"

"I don't like it"

"And I don't like a truck full of chemical weapons being in the paws of a mad-mammal, we do what we have to do, we in agreement"

Reluctantly Judy nodded in agreement, Nick threw up his arms and let out a sigh,

"Fine, you call us if you see anything sketchy all right"

"you got it, drop us off at the station, we'll keep in touch"


	10. Chapter 10

Judy slowed her unmarked cruiser down and pulled into the entrance to the Big's estate, the long winding driveway lead through the snow covered grounds to the mansion sat on top of a hill that gave the occupants a good view over the entire area, it's soft lights shinning through the windows made the house stand out like a jewel as the sun had set not long ago. The car pulled to a stop at the base of a set of stone steps leading to the large wooden double doors at the front of the house, waiting outside was a large polar bear in a tracksuit who had been on his phone but he put it away once he recognised who was in the car.

Nick and Judy got out of the car and headed up the steps, they had both put their black works jackets on as the temperature had plummeted, the district control wall was preparing to add a fresh layer of snow to the area and the two of them were starting to shiver. Even though Nick had reconciled with the Big's over the years, helped along with his marriage to Judy, he still left most of the talking to Judy in case he put his foot wrong.

"Hello Raymond, is Fru Fru in? We need to speak with her"

"Miss Fru Fru has just returned, she should be in the living room. Come in, I'll see if she's free"

HE lead the two into the house, it was massive and lavishly decorated with family portraits and meticulously constructed furniture that was well maintained by a small army of cleaners and maintenance staff that helped keep the entire mansion that was hundreds of years old from falling into disrepair. Raymond asked for them to wait in the main hall while he went through a side door to check on Fru Fru, as Nick and Judy were letting themselves warm up a small but familiar voice called out to them from the stairway that took centre place in the hall, a female arctic shrew about ten years old in a light blue summer dress bounded down the stairs and jumped up onto Judy's paw as she held it out for her,

"Aunty Judy uncle Nick, have you come for dinner? Are James and Violet not with you?"

"They're staying with my parents for a little while, works keeping us busy at the moment"

"Awww, are you staying for food at least?"

"I don't know if we'll have time, we're hoping to talk to your mom"

"She's cooking for us, come on"

"Raymond asked us to wait Jude"

"My mom wont mind, anyway Raymonds a stick in the mud, always does things the old way, you're family come on"

Judy and Nick followed little Jude's, as she liked to be called, instruction and headed through the side door that Raymond had gone through earlier, inside was a large living area with it's walls lined with bookcases and shelves with pieces of art stood on them, a large table that could sit twelve had a white cloth over it with places set for six mammals and in the middle was a smaller table for four much smaller mammals. A huge TV that was at least 60 inches across was playing an old foreign movie with subtitles playing on the bottom of the screen, sat on a tiny chair on top of a large desk was an elderly shrew in a bath robe, his fur had turned a light grey and a tiny wisp of smoke trailed from the lit cigar in his frail paws, an IV drip was connected to his left arm and his movement as he took a puff from the cigar was slow and looked strained.

Jude jumped off Judy's paw onto the desk next to the elderly shrew, she walked over and gave him a gentle hug,

"Grand papa, Nick and Judy are here"

"huh?"

He turned his head around and squinted, his eye sight was poor and it took him a moment before he could see them clearly enough to recognise them.

"Ahh, Judy, Nicky, how are you?"

"We're good Mr Big, how are you?"

"Getting by slowly, the doctors keep giving me more and more tablets, I swear I'd rattle if you shook me. To what do we owe the honour?"

"They want to speak to mama, can they stay for food?"

"I don't know if we'll have time"

"Nonsense, you are part of my family and godparents to little Jude, we all must eat. Fru Fru is making some of grand mama's cannoli. Jude got get your mother, tell her we have guests"

"Okay Grand papa"

The little shrew jumped down of the desk and ran off to the kitchen, despite being so small she could mover very quickly and it took but a moment for her to scamper through the smaller door built into the main door of the kitchen. Mr Big sat back in his chair and Nick and Judy walked around so that he could see them easier,

"You still have terrible tastes in shirts Nicky, I hope you'll wear a nice shirt to my funeral"

"Mr Big Sir you have my word, I hope it wont be any time soon sir"

"I'm getting on in my age, we don't tend to last long once it starts, but I'm not afraid I have put everything right. You're a good boy Nicky, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye but I respect what you have done with your life."

"Mr Big..."

"Stand tall and proud, don't let anyone pull you into the dirt, if they do I'll ice em"

"Daddy, what did I tell you about threatening to ice people"

The high pitch voice of Fru Fru was clear as day as she walked out of the kitchen followed by little Jude, she had and apron on that was covered in flour and chocolate,

"Nicky Judy it's nice to see you again it's been a while"

"It's nice to see you to Fru Fru, sorry to barge in like this but we're short on time"

"That's okay you're family you can come by any time, so what's up?"

"We're looking for a dangerous mammal who was looking to set up operations in Tundratown, we were wondering if you had any dealings with him"

"I thought you didn't want to ask questions like that, you know internal affairs is waiting for a chance to pounce on you guys for your relationship with us"

"Mrs Fru Fru with all due respect the mammal we're after has threatened to kill thousands and we're running out of options, we need to find him"

"Alright. Tell me about him"

"He's a grey wolf, wears a metal mask at all times and goes by the name of Joseph Sokolov, he was offering to produce a new street drug for any organisation that would back him"

"I know the wolf you're on about, though he went by Artyem when he came to us about four months ago. He offered us a 50 percent cut off his profits if we provided him protection and a large warehouse or similar structure to let him run his operation from. It would have increased our profits by 15 percent but as you know I'm trying to move us over to legitimate businesses."

"What happened?"

"I declined his offer and wished him luck in his business. He tried twice to get me to change my mind but I am determined to take this family legitimate and I wasn't going to turn my dream down."

"Was there anywhere specific that he wanted for his operation?"

"He was interested in a couple of places, all along water fronts"

"Have you heard anything since?"

Before Fru Fru could say anything else Nick and Judy's radios sounded with a three short and sharp ascending alarm tones that sent a chill down their spines.

* * *

Inside the Section 12 headquarters control room the night shift had taken over from the day shift and were carrying on with their search through the hundreds of CCTV cameras across the city, assigning teams to search every inch of the three locations due to hold public events in the week and trawling through every piece of potential evidence that could lead them to Sokolov. The room was a buzz of activity but despite their best efforts they were dismayed to find that after following the two trucks for only three blocks they disappeared from CCTV and so far there had been no further sightings. A beaver lent back in his chair away from his computer and rubbed his eyes as it ran an experimental program to aid them, from where he was sitting he could see through the window into Savage's office and he could see the hair sat at his desk with his jacket off, a cigarette in his mouth as he appeared to be reading through and signing a huge pile of paperwork.

"Does that guy ever sleep?"

"Who?"

A white hare sat at the desk next to his looked over at the beaver, she looked in the direction he was facing and saw Savage at work,

"Oh the Director. I haven' seen him leave yet, from what I hear he tends to sleep at his desk"

"Doesn't he have a home to go to?"

"He does, his wife's a former agent, that's the rumour anyway"

"My girlfriend would be pissed at me if I stayed at work at all hours"

"He's very dedicated, can't blame him this Sokolov guy is nuts"

"I hope we find him soon"

Inside the Directors office Jack was reading through a thick document, he took a drag from his cigarette and slowly blew the smoke out in a thin trail. The document was heavy, not just physically, but the implications that it would have if he signed it would shake things up in the city. As he sat with a pen in hand contemplating what to do a loud alarm rang through the control room. It took a moment for him to recognise the tone it was making but when he did he quickly got up from his desk and dashed into the control room. The large 80 inch monitor on the wall at the front of the room, used for updates and briefings, had changed from the picture of Sokolov with all the relevant information that they had gathered about him to a map of the meadow-lands district with a red dot flashing on it.

"What have we got?"

The hare called over to him as she typed on the computer,

"A panic button has been pressed"

"Who's?"

"Checking now"

The map of the meadow-lands district resized as a profile picture slid in from the side,

"Agent Schwartzpelz"

"Contact nearest units, have them redirected priority one to her location"

"Yes sir"

A second alarm sounded along with the first and a second red dot appeared next to the first, another picture slid in an resized Claire's picture to fit the two one above the other next to the map.

"Agent Langdon's alarm has been activated as well"

"Alright listen up this is now a code zero, mobilise every asset we have in the city I want the area locked down immediately. Get hold of the ZPD, I want a the hundred yard cordon around the area, notify TUSK I want that place secured, now!"

* * *

A large cat stood at his toll booth gate at the district temperature control wall leading from Tundratown to the Meadow-lands, it had been a busy shift but he was looking forward to finishing so he could go an have a pint with his pals. He was getting ready to close his booth, it was normal procedure during the night to reduce the number of lanes open in order to save money. The door to the supervisor office door opened and the cat waited for his cash box to be collected, however he was surprised to see his supervisor, a female zebra, come running out yelling at him to open the gates. He paused for a moment thinking that she was messing around, but he quickly began to open them as soon as he saw her opening them as well. The cat and his supervisor had opened four of the gates when the wails of rapidly approaching sirens caught his attention, in less than a minute a convoy of marked and unmarked cruisers along with a heavy emergency response truck came racing through the toll booths at incredible speeds. The two toll operators stared at the vehicles as they charged along the main highway heading through the Meadow-lands.

Driving one of the unmarked cruisers was Judy, her foot was keeping the accelerator flat to the floor, and the engine roared as they shot down the highway at well over a hundred miles an hour, it was lucky that it was late at night as the roads were mostly empty. As they approached the off ramp that lead down to High Road station they could see that the area was lit up like a Christmas tree with the lights from the other emergency vehicles that had already arrived. The convoy that they were part of screeched to a halt in the street surrounding a large red bricked building, smoke was pouring out of the upper windows and fire could be seen lapping at the air. As they got out of the cruiser they could hear gunshots coming from inside the building and a SWAT truck was trying to break through a heavy metal delivery door that appeared to be the only way into the building. Shouts and three shots rang out and one of the windows on the third floor smashed, the body of a labrador fell through it and landed on top of one of the cruisers.

The wheels of the SWAT truck spun and smoke poured from them as the metal door began to buckle, some of the officers had pulled ladders from a nearby fire truck that was amongst the responders and were setting it up against the wall when two officers from a TUSK unit opened fire on the window they were placing the ladder against. Muzzle flashes from a gun inside the building could be seen for a moment before a spray of blood came out of the window as the TUSK officers shot the attacker. Taking advantage of the confusion the the gun-mammal had caused Nick and Judy dashed up the ladder and joined the TUSK unit that was climbing in through a neighbouring window. They were inside what looked like an old conference room, smoke was starting to build up and it was crawling across the ceiling. The echoey sound of heavy footsteps approaching caught the teams attention as the door to the room burst open and a female hippo ran into the room with a shotgun in her hoof, she saw the officers and went to raise her gun but was hit in the chest by a burst of automatic fire from the TUSK team, she fell to her knees but lifted the gun, more shots rang out from everyone in the room until she stopped moving. A metal splintering sound and shouts on the ground level signalled that the door had been broken down as dozens of heavily armed agents and officers stormed the building. The entire building was a warzone with gunfire and blasts from stun grenades echoing through the large building. The fighting with the heavily armed occupants lasted for only a few minutes but it seemed like an eternity as they searched for their compatriots. Then, in a room full of metal barrels they found them. Slumped against a barrel and surrounded by dead bodies with a raised gun in his paw was Max, laying across him and pulled tight to his chest was Claire, both of them were covered in blood and looked badly injured. He was breathing heavily and blood was running from a wound in his head into his left eye, he squinted as the flashlights from the TUSK team was shone on him, but he was relieved when he heard the voices of Nick and Judy as they ran over to check on him. For him everything became a blur as calls went out for help from the paramedics waiting at the cordon. Within minutes both were carefully carried outside by some of the larger mammals to waiting ambulances and they were rushed to the nearest trauma centre.

* * *

AN- Sorry for the short length of the chapter, I've been busy with work and haven't had much time to write.


	11. Chapter 11

Jack tapped his foot rapidly on the tiled floor of St Mary's Hospitals waiting room as he impatiently waited for news about Max and Claire, it had been five hours since they had been admitted to the operating rooms and on at least three occasions the doors had opened only for a nurse to run out to get more blood bags. He looked at his watch after noticing Nick and Judy sat on one of the benches, they had escorted the ambulances to the hospital along with several other units and had been waiting here even before Jack arrived, it was now half past two in the morning and they looked as if they could barely keep their eyes open.

"You two should go home and get some rest, I'll update you when I hear anything"

Nick shook his head quickly to try and wake himself up,

"With all due respect Jack we'll stay here, they're our team as much as they are yours, we want to be here. I could go for a coffee though, want anything carrots?"

"Black coffee, the taste alone should keep me awake"

"What about you Jack?"

"I'm fine for now"

Nick slid off the bench and landed on the floor with a soft thud, the benches were set for much larger mammals who were the kind that the hospital usually catered for, however they had the best trauma unit in the city and so they had to make do with the size difference. Nick trudged off out of the room and made a beeline for the cafeteria, caffeine being his only goal right now. Judy sat quietly for a moment while she looked at Jack, he had an extremely concerned look on his face as he stared at the door to operating room four where Claire was being treated.

"You're quite close to Claire aren't you"

"Yes, she's a good agent and close friend of mine. We've worked together for years and she's always had my back, even when I use unorthodox approaches to problems that most mammals would dismiss."

"How long have you known her?"

"Twelve years, I brought her into the agency, she has always shown great resolve and willpower and puts everything into what she does, even at great personal risk to herself. She she was there with you during the nighthowler case"

"She was?"

"mhm, When you became the focus of the media after your, unfortunately worded speech, we received threats against you from predators who saw what you had said as an excuse to commit violence. Claire was sent to shadow you and protect you during public events"

"I didn't notice anybody"

"That's because we stay out of the public eye, we only need to show ourselves when absolutely necessary. I fear with what happened tonight we wont be able to keep a lid on this for much longer, things are going to get tougher from here on out, you and Nick need to prepare yourselves for the worst"

Nick walked past Jack and held a cup out in front of him as he balanced a tray in his other paw that had two cups on it, Jack looked up at him and paused for a moment before taking it from him,

"Decided to get you one anyway, it's been a long day for all of us"

"Thanks"

Jack took a sip as Nick handed the tray up to Judy so he could climb onto the bench next to her before taking his cup,

"Don't worry about us Jack, we've been cops long enough to see the shit that the city can throw at mammals, we've seen a lot of dark things."

"I'm not on about that Nick, with what's happened there's likely to be a shit storm coming down from the top brass, I don't know who's going to get caught up in it"

The sound of a phone vibrating caught Nick and Judy's attention and Jack pulled out his phone, he looked at the screen and his face fell a little as he saw the name. He answered the call and took a couple of steps away from them so as Judy couldn't hear what was being said on the other end.

"I'm at the Hospital now Sir...No Sir they're still in theatre at the moment...I am aware Sir...No Sir EOD cleared the scene an hour ago, I have every agent under my control searching right now...What? When?...With all due respect Sir tell Church to go fuck himself, if he wants to speak to me then he'll have to wait like everyone else"

The door to operation room five opened and several doctors walked out along with a gurney with Max on it,

"Sorry sir I'm going to have to call you back"

Jack ended the call as a familiar female badger in surgical garb walked over to him,

"Director Savage"

"Doctor Madge, how is he?"

"He's doing remarkably well which I imagine is due to his nature, we pulled eighty seven metal fragments from the entire back half of his body, as well as five bullets. He has second degree burns on his back, along with two localised patches of third degree burns near his shoulder blades where we extracted two very unusual bullets"

She took a small resealable plastic bag from the clipboard and handed them over to him, they looked like rifle bullets but they had a small hollowed out chamber in the middle"

"None of his vital organs were hit, but he will be out of action for a while, we're having to keep him sedated on his front for now while his stitches take hold"

"How long will he be out?"

"I honestly can't say, his first injury a week ago should have killed him, so I really have no idea I'm afraid"

"He's alive at least, he'll pull through"

Madge tapped the board nervously without realising it and Jack noticed it,

"What is it?"

"I have bad news from Doctor Lyle about Agent Schwartzpelz, she has severe trauma throughout her body which is one of the reasons why her surgery is taking so long"

"One of the reasons?"

"Yes. I'm afraid we've had to amputate her left arm below the elbow"

"What?!"

"It looks like it took the full brunt from a shotgun blast at close range, there was no way we could save it. I'm very sorry Jack"

* * *

Max's eyelids felt incredibly heavy as he slowly opened them just enough to let some light in, he inhaled sharply as his back felt like it was on fire but he grit his teeth and forced the pain to subside enough for him to concentrate. He opened his eyes fully and could see the white tiles on the floor of the recovery room that he was in, his head was in a hole in the mattress of the bed and he could feel his arms and legs spread out, he could feel the air conditioning blowing against him and he could tell that he was missing a lot of fur. Slowly lifting his head up and turning it he could see the heart rate monitor pulsing away healthily and he could just make out the silhouette of a large mammal stood still the other side of the curtains covering the window to the corridor of the hospital. Flexing his fingers and toes Max tested his movement, it was slow progress and painful at that, but he eventually managed to sit himself up on the edge of the bed. His head was swimming from what was left of the sedative in his system and he had to wait for his vision to steady before trying to move again, he pulled the pads of the heart monitor from his chest and watched as the monitor flatlined, a light pulsed in warning but it's alarm didn't sound. Next to the bed was a wooden set of draws that looked sturdy enough, carefully he put his paws onto it and slowly pulled himself up, his legs were like jelly and were screaming at him, but he forced himself into a standing position and bore most of his weight with his arms until his legs recovered. Hanging on a hook on the wall by the door was a patients robe, using the wall as support he made his way over to it, even though it was only twenty feet away he had to pause halfway to steady himself as his vision began to shake again. Making it to the robe he took it from the hook and struggled to lift his arm high enough to put it on as pain rippled through it and took his breath away. Now sufficiently clothed he opened the door to see Higgins stood guard outside his room with a shotgun in his hoofs, the look of shock on Higgins face would have been funny to Max if he wasn't in so much pain.

"Jesus Max what are you doing, you should be in bed you look like death"

He went to help Max back to into the room but Max pushed his hoof away, he almost lost his balance with the act and he had to grab the frame of the door to steady himself,

"Where's Claire?"

"She's in a recovery room down the hall. You need to get back to bed"

"Which room?"

"Aren't you listening? You aren't in any condition to be up"

He went to put his arm around Max's shoulders and lead him back to bed but Max grabbed him by the wrist and extended his claws,

"You're going to take me to her room, or I'll put you in that bed"

The look on Max's face told Higgins one thing, that he was deadly serious. The experienced hippo was a veteran police officer and had seen mammals with that look in their eyes before and he knew what would happen if they were angered.

"Jacks probably gonna kill me for this"

Higgins shouldered the shotgun and slowly lead Max down the corridor, he had to steady him a couple of times and he was concerned about Max's laboured breathing. Even though it was only about sixty feet to the door of Claire's room Max looked like he had all but burned through his energy, as he leant against the wall next to the door Higgins looked at him with genuine concern,

"I'll be fine Higgins, don't worry about me. Open the door will you"

"Max are you sure about this?"

"Just do it already"

Reluctantly Higgins opened the door and held it open as Max slowly staggered into the room, Max paused as he saw Claire lying on the bed, the covered were up to her chest and she was covered in bandages. A mask was covering her face and a machine was helping her to breath, her heart rate was low but steady and an IV drip was connected to a cannula in her right wrist. But he noticed something, a bandage over the stump of her left arm, his stomach dropped as soon as he saw it. He mumbled as his breath escaped him.

"oh christ"

He grabbed a nearby chair and tried to move it but he had trouble pulling it against the tiles, Higgins leant over him and picked it up,

"Thank you"

"Where do you want it?"

"Over there please, next to the bed"

Higgins put it down gently on her right hand side and he helped Max up onto it, Max breathed heavily as he tried to recover some of his strength,

"Thanks Higgins. Sorry about grabbing you earlier"

"It's alright, you sure you're alright? Want me to get a nurse?"

"I'll be fine. I just need to rest a little"

"Alright, I'll be outside if you need me"

Higgins left the room and closed the door behind him, even without him having night vision there was enough moonlight out for him to see Max take Claire's paw in his and and close his eyes, to Higgins it looked like he was trying to concentrate on something but he couldn't be sure. Even though Max said he would be alright Higgins was still concerned so he went and informed the duty nurse of where Max was just in case.

* * *

In the parking lot of St Mary's hospital near to the A&E ward entrance sat three jet black SUVs, their windows were tinted and unlike the other SUVs in the parking lot the three of them were heavily armoured. Unbeknownst to the mammals passing them by an important meeting was taking place inside the middle vehicle. Jack was sitting in front of a kangaroo with frustration written across his face, the kangaroo was in a black agency suit like Jacks and he looked like he had had the weight of the world on his shoulders for years, his skin was weathered and his fur had faded in patches yet he still had a look of determination about him.

"Director Samuels you have to understand, we are already at maximum capacity searching for the chemical weapons, we can't spare any more resources, I need additional feet on the ground sir"

"I understand that Jack, you know I want to bring in more agents but my paws are tied. Church is lobbying to take control of the operation, and if he is successful then your agenda with agent Schwartzpelz will never go through. How is she by the way?"

"Not good, they had to amputate her left arm below the elbow, she had sever internal bleeding and damage to several of her organs. They don't know if she'll make it"

"I see... Look I'll do what I can to convince the bureaucrats, but for now your going to have to try and manage with what you have. With the window closing in I'm less concerned about protocol, if you think you can get results then bend, hell break the rules of you need to. Use local units or whatever you can come up with, we have three days before the first public events, I don't want to have to get a call from Madam Secretary, understand?"

"Yes sir"

"Good luck Jack"

* * *

Jack headed into the hospital staffs break room and grabbed his coat off the back of one of the chairs, the sounds of someone snoring caught his attention and he could see Nick and Judy asleep on one of the couches, Judy was lying next to Nick and he had his tail curled around her. They had all been at the hospital for almost nine hours and they were all exhausted. Before heading back to Section 12 headquarters to get the situation report from the teams that were searching the building, that they now knew to be an old office block for a now de-funked company, he decided to check up on Max and Claire. As he entered the recovery ward he noticed something, Higgins was not outside Max's room like he had instructed him, instead he was sitting on a bench outside Claire's room. The hippo was staring at the window to her room and didn't notice Jack approach until he was already next to him. He shot up form his seat but was urged to stay where he was,

"What's going on Higgins?"

"Sir, Max wanted to sit with Claire sir"

"He what? How is he up so fast?"

"I don't know sir, he looked week sir. I tried to get him back to bed but he was..very insistent..when asking."

"How long has been in there?"

"A few hours sir, he's just been sitting there holding her paw"

"I see. You can go Higgins, next shift will be here in a couple of minutes, make them aware of what's happening. Leave Max do what he wants for now"

"Yes sir"

Higgins got up and headed back to front of the ward and went towards the elevator. Jack had to jump to grab the handle of the door but he managed to open it easily enough. The light from the rising sun was just starting to come through the blinds, Max was sat stock still on the chair next to Claire, the only movement coming from him was the rising and falling of his chest and his eyes looked slightly glazed like he was in a trance. Jack walked over and stood next to him, he could just about see Claire lying in the tall bed,

"Max, how are you feeling?"

He waited but there was no answer, he just kept staring at Claire.

"Look Max, we're still trying to piece together what happened. I know you did everything you could to look after her, and I thank you for that. Claire means a lot to me, and she'll mean a lot to this city soon. But if Sokolov succeeds then I don't think there'll be much left for any of us. Did you find anything, anything at all to bring us closer?"

The room was quiet, the only sound was coming from the low beeping of the heart monitor. Jack turned to leave when he heard Max almost whisper,

"Angie knows"

"Angie? Who's Angie?"

"Black bear, lead the group"

"What else can you tell me?"

He didn't answer

"Max, Please I need more to go on than that"

He stayed quiet, his eyes looked more glazed than before. Jack tried a few more times but he got the impression Max no longer knew that he was there. He headed out of the room and found one his agents stood outside the room.

"Listen to me, you need to pay attention to anything that he says in there, it could be important, keep me informed of everything no matter how small it may seem"

The agent nodded and Jack headed off back to the headquarters, meanwhile images of what they had gone through ran through Max's mind, his lips curling back into a snarl and anger built up inside of him as the face of the black bear came to the forefront of his mind.

* * *

AN - Managed to bash this out quickly this morning before work, hope you like.


	12. Chapter 12

It was nine am the morning after the attack against Max and Claire, and in the recovery ward of Saint Mary's Hospital the dingo assigned by Jack to guard them was getting restless. The Hospital was getting busy and the dry air that the air conditioning unit was pumping out was making him thirsty. He looked at the clock hanging above the nurses station and saw that he had three more hours before being relieved of duty much to his displeasure. With Max having not moved an inch since he had taken over the post he decided to risk it and he went down the corridor and around the corner to a coffee vending machine. A couple of minutes later he walked back to his post with a steaming coffee with vanilla flavouring just as he liked it, as he looked through the window he chocked on the drink and dropped the cup, he dashed into the room and froze in shock, Max was gone.

* * *

Jack was laying on his bed fast asleep, he hadn't been back to his home in the rainforest district in four days, and even though he came home around six am his wife, a short arctic fox, was more than happy to see him. Knowing that he never slept for long she was preparing some food for him, she had cooked his favourite vegetable lasagne and plated it up, she then headed over to and opened one of the cupboards, she sighed sadly as she stared at it's contents. She took four of the many orange pill bottles out of the cupboard and took some from each and placed them into a dish next to his food. The amount that he had to take had steadily increased over the years, it saddened her to know what would happen if he missed even one of his doses. Her ears perked up as she heard the sound of his cell phone ringing on the night stand next to their bed. She could hear his slurred speech and could picture his half asleep face, she chuckled as she knew he looked like a young kit when he was that groggy and he hated to be reminded of it, but she jumped a mile as he suddenly yelled into the phone.

* * *

Across the city Max was getting lots of strange looks from mammals as he past them by wearing only the patients clothing from the hospital, but he paid them no mind as he was focused on what he was planning. He walked into the reception of the apartment building that he had stayed in with Claire on his first real night in the city and past the receptionist straight into the elevator. He walked quickly down the corridor after exiting on the correct floor and stopped outside her apartment. Checking that noone was around he put his shoulder against the door and pressed against it as he lifted the doors handle, nothing happened for a few moments but soon there was a creaking noise followed by a pop as the lock slide out of it's housing. He quickly entered and reset the door to give him privacy from the other residents. He wasn't going to play games with Jack any more and grabbed a pair of clothes from his room, quickly found the miniature microphones and tracking devices sewn into them and crushed them. After dressing quickly he started sniffing around for what he needed, the scent was distinctive and it took him almost no time to find two black metal cases, one under Claire's bed and the other in her wardrobe. He laid them on her bed and flicked the catches open, inside the smaller one was a pistol with spare preloaded magazines along with a holster and in the larger case was a sub-machine gun with extra mags and a shoulder sling. After gearing up he grabbed a set of keys from the dresser and headed back into the elevator. The SMG was a little to big to be hidden properly under his coat but there was noone around to notice. As he exited the elevator into the lobby he walked straight over to Marline who was on the desk phone, drew the pistol and put it against her side before she could do anything. Her eyes bulged and she froze, he carefully took the phone from her and placed it down in it's holder He put his free paw under the counter of the reception desk, took the revolver shotgun and pocketed it,

"I'm not going to hurt you"

"What are you doing Max?"

"I'm really sorry but I need to borrow this, you aren't going to try anything are you?"

Marline gulped and shook her head. Satisfied Max holstered the pistol and left before she had a chance to recover. The screeching of car tyres from the apartments parking lot moments later snapped her out of her stupor and she quickly called the headquarters.

* * *

At the red bricked building that was the sight of last nights attack a large team of CSI officers, lead by Vicki Clawhauser, were methodically searching for evidence with a fine toothed comb. The fire that was burning on the upper floor when help arrived had spread rapidly, the TUSK units only just managed to get Max and Claire clear of the building before the fire ignited something that was highly flammable on the top floor, it quickly sent the fire way out of control. Fire crews battled through the night, but in the end there was little left of the building left standing, only the buildings shell and some of the lower floors remained safe enough for examination and the entire building was on the verge of being declared too dangerous to enter. This didn't deter Vicki however, she and an elephant were searching the lower floor of the building, it was a huge loading area that could easily fit several articulated trucks at once, it was covered in thick black ash and soot, that had mixed with the water that the fire department had used to extinguish the blaze, and it had turned into a thick tar-like substance. The elephant, who was far larger and stronger than Vicki, was moving items for her to photograph so that they could catalogue everything thoroughly, but it was proving to be difficult, some of the support beams for the upper floors had collapsed and fallen the floor leaving a trail of destruction. Vicki was currently trying to photograph and take samples from an area of yellow powder seeping from under one of these beams and even the elephant was straining as he tried to lift it,

"It's no good Vicki, this thing wont budge"

"We need to move it somehow Matthew, cant afford to leave anything behind"

They looked around for a solution, the area was too tight to get a crane in without large risk of bringing the entire building down.

"You know the TUSK guys carry cutting torches in their trucks, we could borrow one"

"Possibly, but I don't want to risk causing more damage than there already is"

Then Vicki spotted someone familiar through a large hole in the wall, stood about a hundred yards away at the scenes inner cordon was an elephant and a polar bear, Vicki cupped her paws around her mouth and yelled over to them,

"Francine!"

Francine was in the middle of a conversation with the polar bear as they stood next their ZPD cruiser, she stopped talking and turned to see Vicki waving over to her. She said something to the bear and jogged over to the building,

"Hey Vicki, what can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you could help us out"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Could you help Matthew move that support beam? I need to take a sample from a substance underneath it"

She looked at the beam, it was huge and looked to be solid metal, but it looked manageable with two of them lifting it,

"Sure I'll give it a go"

"Thanks, Mat give her one of your dust masks, I don't want her breathing any of this stuff in"

He pulled a small plastic wrapped package out of his pocket and handed it to her, a simple dust mask was folded up inside and it only took her a moment to get it ready, after checking where they were going to move the beam to they each grabbed an end with the intention of moving it a couple of feet to the left, away from the bulk of the rubble that had fallen through the ceiling. Francine counted down,

"Three, two, one, lift"

Francine and Matthew strained against the heavy beam, the strain on their faces was plain to see and they were both going red as they grunted with their teeth grit together. Inch by inch they managed to wiggle the beam free from where it had landed, taking a couple of steps to the side to expose the ground where it had landed. Matthew lost his grip and his end of the beam dropped to the ground knocking the beam from Francine's grip as well. A loud booming noise echoed through the building as the beam hit the ground, Vicki yelled out in both shock and anger,

"Matthew you idiot!"

"I didn't mean to drop it Vicki, I'm sorry but it's really heavy"

Matthew stepped over to Francine who was stood by the beam,

"You alright?"

"Yeah no problems, just a little shocked"

The sound of splintering metal shot through the buildings remains and the ground beneath the two elephants collapsed sending them into the blackness below, a huge plume of soot exploded across the site blinding Vicki and the other CSI officers. As the dust settled Vicki ripped her mask off and brushed the soot from her face as she spluttered and spat out a mouthful of black dust. A huge hole in the floor lay where the two elephants were standing moments ago, Vicki peered over the edge and yelled out,

"Francine, Matthew. Are you two alright?"

She could hear coughing, and a few moments later Francine's voice echoed up to her,

"We're alright, Matthew broke my fall"

The beam from a flashlight blinded Vicki for a moment as Francine shone it up to get a look at where they had come from. The hole was around twenty feet above them, well out of reach for them to climb out of themselves. As she shone the flashlight around her she saw that they were in a concrete lined tunnel, a large one at that and there were fresh distinctive marks on the concrete floor.

"Vicki, you're going to need to see this"

* * *

Jack burst through the door to the control room at section 12 headquarters with a look on his face that screamed murder, the room was busy as usual and only a few mammals had noticed him, that is until he began yelling at the top of his voice,

"Where the fuck is he?!"

The beaver who had been talking about Jack with his colleagues the day before called over from his computer,

"We're unsure sir, a set of tracking devices was destroyed in the apartment but Agent Schwartzpelz cruiser is moving through the city, it could be him"

"I don't mean agent Langdon. I mean the imbecile who let him out of his sight. Anyone know or do I have to have to start wringing people's necks?"

A very nervous dingo stepped out from behind one of the desks and walked towards him rubbing his thumbs between his clasped paws,

"Here sir"

Jack marched over to him and placed his paw out with his palm facing upwards,

"gun"

"sir?"

"Give me your gun now agent"

The dingo gulped nervously as the attention of every mammal in the room was focused squarely on him, he shakily un-holstered his pistol and placed it in Jacks paw. It was bigger than the gun that Jack carried due to the size difference between the two mammals, but that didn't stop him from holding it by the barrel and swinging it full force against the side of the dingos head like a bat. The pain the strike caused was plainly evident as the dingo stumbled back and stood holding the side of his face, everyone else in the room sat silently in shock, they hadn't seen Jack this angry before. Fear was the only emotion that showed on the dingos face as Jack stood in front of him seething,

"You're lucky I'm short of agents, or I would have you out on your ass before you knew what was happening"

He jammed the gun into the dingos empty paw and almost growled as he spat out,

"Get the fuck out of my sight"

The dingo didn't need any encouragement and he quickly scrambled to get out of the room. Jack took a deep breath, steadying and lowering his voice to a talking level.

"Where's the cruiser heading?"

"If it keeps on it's current course it'll be in the vicinity of Little Rodentia in twenty minutes"

"Good, assign a unit to track him"

"Paws on sir?"

"No, observation only. I want to know what he's up to. The rest of you back to work. I want updates from every section head and investigation team in my office in ten minutes"

A white female hare shot her paw up and called out firmly,

"Sir, Doctor Clawhauser has found something, she's waiting on a call from you, she's flagged it security level five your eyes only"

"Thank you"

He stormed into his office and closed the blinds, after taking his jacket off he slumped onto his chair and loosened his tie. He could feel his chest tightening and it felt like it was being stabbed, he opened his desk draw and took out a pill bottle, taking two of the blue pills out of the bottle he tossed them to the back of his mouth and swallowed them dry. With that done he entered his security code and connected to Vicki's video call. She was in a full forensic uniform with a breathing respirator over her face, behind her he could see a plain concrete wall but he could tell she was somewhere dark and was using the light of her camera to see.

"Dr Clawhauser what have you got for me?"

"Sir, we were documenting the site from last night and came across something. While Doctor Hooflic and officer Pennington were moving a structural beam that had collapsed the floor they were standing on gave way. Beneath the building is a sophisticated tunnel that looks like it's been here for some time, we were going to dismiss it as just being part of the cities old infrastructure till we found this"

She turned the camera to see two sets of black marks on the concrete floor in front of her,

"Are those?"

"Yes sir, fresh tire marks, big enough to be from a truck, and the tunnel is certainly large enough to accept a vehicle that size. I think the reason we haven't found the trucks yet is because they've been using these tunnels to get about."

"It would certainly explain how they can seemingly disappear. Do you have any idea where it leads"

"No idea sir, there's a ramp that leads into this building ending this section of the tunnel, the other end heads off east in the direction of Tundratown"

"Who do you have with you?"

"My forensics team and a handful of ZPD's officers that are patrolling the inner cordon"

"Alright hold back for now, I'll send Wilde, Hopps and a TUSK team to search the tunnel, don't go exploring for the love of god"

"I wont, one more thing sir. While I was waiting for you to get to the office I ran a check, the tunnels don't exist on any maps"

"Could be they were missed"

"Unlikely sir, these tunnels are supporting the weight of the buildings above them, some record has to exist of them but none of the civil offices have any copies or records of any kinds. Someone's purposely hidden them from public view"

Jack sat still as that thought ran through his head, he thought back to what Director Samuels had told him and a sickening thought crept up on him.

"Sir?"

"It's nothing, good job Dr Clawhauser, I'll have units to you as soon as possible"

He cancelled the call and sat looking at the computer screen for a moment, there was a quick knock on the door before it was opened and the five heads of the investigative sub sections under his command walked in. Each of them had a file in hand with the latest intell, which didn't equate to much between them. Jack looked up at them for a moment before dismissing them with the wave of his paw. He made a quick call to send the help he had promised to Vicki before grabbing his jacket and leaving, He needed answers and he knew where to go at this time of the day to get them.

* * *

In his private residence on the top three floors off ten storey club V Victor Hyde was taking it easy. After Max's unexpected visit and his rather brash dismissal of his underbosses he had ordered extra food and drink as a means of apology to them when they were allowed back in. As he usually did when there was a lot of food and drink available he had overindulged and now he was suffering with a nasty hangover from all the wine. He was lying on a reclining chair with an eye mask on while a fan was blowing cool air over him and some calming music was playing softly through a set of speakers on the table next to him, stood not far away from him was his personal servant, a middle aged panther with a few grey hairs running through his fur, his suit was immaculately clean and ironed to perfection, he took his job seriously and Hyde rewarded him regularly with whatever he asked for for his loyal service.

"Arthur"

"Yes Sir?"

"What wine was served yesterday?"

"I believe it was a chenin blanc sir"

"I don't want any more of that at the next party, it doesn't sit well"

"Yes sir"

Hyde reached down the outside of the chair with his trunk and picked up some exotic fruit, that he had flown into the city every week, and dropped them into his open mouth. As he munched his way through it he couldn't help but hear the muffled thumping of what sounded like a hammer, his residence was fitted with soundproofing which was necessary with it being above a nightclub. He tried to put it to the back of his mind but the more he tried to ignore it the more it became all he could focus on and his eyebrow was twitching in annoyance.

"Do we have construction scheduled for today?"

"We do sir, new pumps are being added to the bar at Finnick's request"

Hyde went to turn the music up a bit to drown the thudding out, but A much louder thud made him rip the eye mask off and get up from the chair.

"I've had enough of this"

He stormed over to the large double door that lead from his spa room to the open hall staircase that joined the three floors together, he flung the doors open and walked down the first few steps followed by Arthur.

"What the hell is all that racket?!"

A lion wielding a shotgun ran from a side corridor into the lowest of the three floors and saw Hyde as he was walking down the stairs, the lions face was full of panic and there was blood on his sleeve as he yelled out to Hyde.

"Sir, you need to get to cover!"

A loud burst of automatic fire echoed through the hall and a spray of red erupted from the lions chest as he fell to the floor, dropping the shotgun and landing on his back. Hyde stopped in his track and stared at the lion as it coughed up a mouthful of blood. From the same corridor that the lion ran through walked a wolf carrying an MP5. He stood over the lion and fired another burst into it, he turned and looked up the stairs straight at Hyde who started to slowly walk backwards up the stairs as he recognised the wolf.

"No, no, this isn't how it's supposed to be"

He turned and ran up the stairs as much as his large bulk would allow, he ran back into the room and flung a painting from the wall. Behind the painting was a safe and he quickly spun the dial, he looked over his shoulder and saw Arthur pushing against the large doors as he tried to close them, they were extremely large and heavy with Hyde opting for protection over ease of use. He had almost got the doors to meet when a loud bang rang out, Arthur yelled and stumbled backwards as blood sprayed from his chest. Hyde pulled the door of the safe open and grabbed the magnum that was lying on top of several brown folders, racked the slide and spun round as he cocked the hammer, before he could do anything an extreme pain burned through his wrist as another shot rang out and he dropped the gun as blood poured from his wrist, stood just inside the door holding a large shotgun revolver was Max. Hyde slowly started walking towards him, he was intent on charging at Max when he was close enough in order to get the gun off him,

"Look, Mr Langdon, whatever it is that you want I'm sure that we can come to some sort of a deal"

He lunged forward as Max fired another shot, Hydes left knee exploded from the powerful shotgun round causing him to crumple to the ground as he yelled in agony, he grasped at the wound as he tried to stem the bleeding, frantically looking around him he spotted the cloth on table next to his chair and he yanked it off sending his music player and bowl of fruit cascading across the floor. With his one good hoof and his trunk he wrapped the cloth around his leg and tied it tight as Max grabbed one of the chairs that was used by Arthur and slammed it onto the ground in front of him before taking a seat on it. Max loosened his tie slightly and wiped some blood from his face, his suit was covered in blood and tears, evidence of his trip up here. He took a small black item out of his pocket that was the size of an MP3 player and put it on the table next to him before taking his jacket off and hanging it on the back of the chair.

"You killed Arthur, he was unarmed"

"Then he should have armed himself. I've killed most of your people, anyone that got in my way"

"What do you want?"

"You lied to me Victor, you knew that Sokolov was up to something big all along, you wanted to be part of it so you sent your wolf amongst the sheep"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Angie Padson, your lieutenant, she told me everything before she tried to kill me and my friend at the address you gave me yesterday"

"She's lying I don't know anything about that I swear!"

"You're going to have to do better than that"

Max pulled out his phone and pressed play, a female voice with an Irish accent could be heard clear as day,

"He's asked you for what? Bleach? He some sort of clean freak?"

The undeniable voice of Hyde calmly responded to her,

"No he's some sort of chemist. I don't care what you have to do to convince him to trust you, he's up to something that is going to propel him high up the food chain, and I want to be one step ahead of him"

"You know he doesn't like to play clean, I may have to kill a few"

"Do what you must, so long as you get me what I want I don't care, just don't let it lead back to me"

Max pressed another button and ended the recording.

"She kept a recording of every meeting you two had, and of the information she sent you, insurance in case you tried to get rid of her"

"That fucking bitch!"

"Sokolov got wise to what you were up to thanks to her, tell me was it you who suggested using the tunnels beneath the city?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Telling me what I want to know is the only thing that can save you"

Hyde was breathing heavily and he was sweating profusely, he knew he was loosing a lot of blood and if he didn't get to a hospital soon he would die. He had been sneakily pressing the panic button in his bathrobe pocket since Max had shot him but there was no response, his only option was to appease the wolf.

"Alright fine, It wasn't me who suggested it, it was another mammal, one that I never met, he was already working with Sokolov before he came to me"

"Who is he?"

"I don't know, all I know is he has some sort of political power or friends in high places at the very least, there's no other way he could have hidden for so long"

"Do you know what Sokolov's target is or where I can find him?"

"You're kidding right? I tried to have him killed after he crossed me remember, I don't have a clue. Angie must though"

"Where can I find her?"

"She's taken over the top floor of an old apartment complex in Sahara Square, near to Palm View, it's on 75th and 112th avenue, you cant miss it it has drug den written all over it"

"And the police don't get involved?"

"I paid them off, plus nobody wants to mess with a psychopath like Angie, you've met her you know what she's like"

"How many can soldiers can I expect?"

"A lot, after you killed her brother Terry last week she took over his crew as well"

Max was slightly taken aback

"Yeah I know about that, Sokolov told me how you killed him in cold blood. But judging by what you've done here I'd say it's nothing unusual to you is it?"

"No. It isn't"

Max picked up the item from the table and pressed a couple of buttons on it, a recording of the conversation he had just had began playing. He pressed a few more buttons and put it in his pocket,

"What are you going to do with that?"

Max stood up and put the gun on the table next to him as he put his jacket on,

"Show it to my superiors, I'll see to it that you spend the rest of your life in a living hell, buried in some filthy jail somewhere"

Hyde chuckled

"You think I'll spend time inside? No one is going to prosecute me, I own this city, you can stop progress kid. Once I've recovered I'll be back at it again"

Max looked more closely at Hyde, he was starting to slur his words and he was paler than before, but he could see the truth behind his words in his eyes, he wouldn't stop no matter what someone threw at him, it went against his nature. Max let out a short sharp sigh, picked up the gun and fired two shots into Hydes head. He pocketed the still smoking gun, straitened his tie and headed out the way he had come in.

* * *

Three black UPS like box vans drove in convoy through the busy midday traffic in the heart of the downtown district, in the back of the vans were three fully geared TUSK teams along with Nick and Judy who had similar gear. The traffic was slowing their progress as they headed to the outer cordon that surrounded the remnants of the red bricked building that Claire and Max were found in, they had now found out that the building used to belong to an office supply company that serviced many companies on the east coast, but with the need for expansion they had moved out in the early eighties and the building had been empty since according to public records. As they waited in the back of the van Nick pulled out his phone and opened up the ZNN news app,

"Anything new Nick?"

"Yeah there's been a news conference"

He turned the volume up on his phone and clicked the video that had been added only fifteen minutes before. It was of a ZPD conference room and sat in the centre of the table surrounded by microphones was Bogo. A banner appeared at the bottom of the screen that read 'Acting Commissioner Adrian Bogo' in block capitals.

"Ladies and Gentlemammals, I have a statement about the events that have happened in the vicinity of High Street station yesterday. At 21:30 hours yesterday we received several calls from citizens who believed they had heard gunfire coming from an abandoned business complex, quarter of a mile to the south of High Street Station. Responding officers found several youths discharging fireworks from the top floor, the officers challenged the youths and an explosion occurred resulting in several injuries. We are currently investigating the cause of the explosion, but it is believed at the moment to have been a gas vent that was ignited by one of the fireworks, this is supported by findings from the fire department that shows gas continuing to escape from the site. Until the source of the gas leak can be identified a 300 yard safety cordon has been established surrounding the site. No access to any location within the cordon will be permitted for the immediate future, we understand that this will cause inconvenience and delays, but the safety of this cities citizens cannot be put at risk. Thank you for your time, no questions"

The video ended as Bogo got up to leave.

"Looks like Bogo got a promotion"

"Is that really the only thing you noticed Nick?"

"Nope, whoever wrote the script wants to keep us out of the news as much as possible, no mention of the ZBI presence"

"That's the way it should be, can you imagine the panic if the truth got out? It would be worse than the riots during the Nighthowlers case"

"That you helped create by the way"

"Please stop reminding me"

They felt the vans jolt as they speed up, Nick almost got knocked out of his seat as he was slouching but he managed to grab hold of his seat and steady himself,

"I didn't expect that, these things certainly aren't built for comfort"

"We must be through the outer cordon, nobody but security services here now"

The vans rolled to a stop and the agents by the doors opened them, stood next to the CSI truck that the van had parked next to was Vicki. The leader from each team accompanied her into the burnt out building, a huge area of the floor was now missing and a low sloping concrete ramp lead from the buildings loading bay into a tunnel, several large metal plates were laying on a pile not far from the tunnel entrance.

"We found this while searching through the building for evidence, have you been briefed on our findings?"

One of the team leaders, a large rhino answered

"Yes Ma'am, you think one of the trucks was held here?"

"We do, we also believe that it has been using the tunnel to navigate the city while avoiding our cameras. Orders from the Director are to thoroughly search the tunnel. We don't know where it leads or how many exits there are. If you find one call it out and we'll have ZPD secure it. We're running out of time so we need to make this as quick as possible"

The three teams did a final check on their gear and headed into the tunnel, not sure of where it would lead.


	13. Chapter 13

Jacks personal driver, who was also his bodyguard when on operations, was driving his unmarked armoured SUV from the headquarters to the high end portion of Sahara Square where the rich liked to play. Jack was in the back and was using his security clearance to try and find whatever he could about the tunnels beneath the city, Vicki was right when she said that someone had hidden the information, everything was redacted or missing, except for one file 'project unity', but when he tried to access it he was locked out as he didn't have Talon clearance, something he had never heard of before. As he tried to think of a way around this his phone rang, he used his paw free kit to answer the call from his observation team that had been sent after Max.

"Savage"

"Sir, we have some good news, and some bad news"

"Give me the bad news first"

"Langdon went to Victor Hydes residence atop Club V, he shot the place up, killed him and all his guards. And we um, we lost him sir"

Jack squeezed the bridge of his nose,

"You've done what?"

"He switched cars on us sir before we could get a tracking beacon on it, we're sorry"

Jack let out a sigh, Max just added more work to his plate as he now had to get in touch with Miss Bane for her to come up with a seemingly legitimate reason for Hyde's death that wouldn't draw attention to them.

"So what's the good news, it better be excellent news to make up for this"

"I think it is sir, Max left a present for us in his cruiser, audio files from Hyde and one of his lieutenants, you need to hear them sir. We also found documents in Hydes safe that point to his involvement with Sokolov, we have some sort of itinerary, a list of possible locations and times"

"You don't think they've been planted"

"Doesn't look like it sir, nothings been disturbed from what we can see"

"Good, grab every document there and return to HQ. Hand them over to the intelligence unit and await further instructions"

"Yes sir"

The call ended and he put his head back against the chair,

"What the hell are you up to Max?"

He found the audio files that the agents had sent him and listened to them, making mental notes as he did so. He listened to them several times before calling headquarters and ordering a stakeout of the apartment complex that Angie had taken over, if Max had the gall to openly attack Hyde in his home then he was sure that he would do the same thing to Angie, and if he was then Jack wanted to ensure that he had some support at least. He didn't like it when agents went off on their own, but he knew from his private discussion with Max that this is how things tended to get done where he came from, and removing one of the cities kingpins had brought them information that if accurate would make Jack more than happy to ignore his going AWOL.

* * *

In Sahara Square the rich, famous and powerful liked to meet at the Hilton hotel, just a few blocks away from City Hall, for lunch where they discussed everything from the important daily running of the city to the latest gossip before it came out in the magazines. It was 1pm and the middle of the lunchtime rush as Jack entered the lobby of the second floor restaurant. He walked straight past the podium where the lemur, who was in charge of reservations, was currently dealing with a sloth couple, the lemur was obviously infuriated by the couples slowness and he paid Jack little attention. He headed into the bustling restaurant floor that was serving around 300 mammals and walked to one of the tables at the rear of the restaurant where the top echelons of the city gathered. Sat at a table along with several other mammals who were joking and laughing as they drank was Joey Samuels, Jack walked over and stood next to him, it took a moment for Joey to notice him and he looked surprised but in a good way.

"Jack, don't tell me you've finally decided to join us? I though you said you hated places like this"

"I do sir"

"Then why are you here?"

"We have a bad seal sir"

The smile on Joey's face faltered for a moment, the other mammals weren't really paying much attention as they continued with their conversation,

"How bad is it?"

"I need to talk with you right now, sir"

Joey slid his chair back and got up as he spoke to the mammal next to him,

"Keep my order coming Dan I'll be back soon"

The mammals nodded and carried on talking with the others. The two of them headed to a special room out the back. The hotel operated special meeting rooms that had speakers built into the walls that constantly played a special white noise that was beyond what any mammal could hear, but it was enough to block out any electrical device from recording sound which prevented spying, this was one of many hidden things within the hotel that provided an allure to the powerful who didn't always play by the book.

"Alright Jack where's the fire?"

"Joey you need to listen to these"

Joey listened intently as Jack played the two audio files from his phone, the longer they went on any remaining sense of merriment in his face left and was replaced by extreme concern.

"Jesus...What about Hyde, have we taken him into custody?"

"He's dead sir, Max shot him and most of his guards"

"You've got a rogue agent?"

Jack had anticipated Joey would say that and was ready to cover Max for now

"No sir, I gave him a lot of leash"

"Set a dangerous creature loose is what you've done"

"I realize we don't know what he is fully capable of, but he has delivered us intelligence we wouldn't have otherwise got, and lets be honest we've wanted to take Hyde down for some time"

"In a controlled way, this is going to leave a power vacuum, and the Mayors going to look for someone to publicly hang"

"So pin it on me, it was my call but we're getting off track"

"Right. What else have you found out?"

"Not much, I've sent three heavy TUSK units to explore the tunnels, not the most elegant plan but we don't know what we're getting ourselves into, I'm more concerned about who let them know about the tunnels and why everything about them has been redacted"

"Redacted?"

"Yes, there isn't a shred of viewable material about them, the only thing I could find was a file named Project Unity but it requires Talon level security clearance, I don't know of anything that has that level"

"Project Unity was something my predecessor taught me. During the mid seventies the government was looking for a storage location for nuclear weapons that could be used to rearm stations if there was ever an attack that took out our missiles. They built miles of tunnels deep beneath the city, but gave up on it when the union collapsed. Everything was sealed and the records deleted, mostly anyway, only those involved in the original project or found out through word of mouth knew. As for the Talon clearance there's only one agency that uses that level, the Interior Security Bureau"

"ISB? Never heard of them"

"It's one of the governments dirty little secrets, they do what no other agency can be seen doing, kidnappings, assassinations, weapon smuggling, you name it"

"So what connection do they have? Anyone you know from there?"

"The ISB is Church's agency"

"Church never wanted Max to be involved in the investigation, and now he's trying to take over"

"If he is involved then you have to consider that everything you know is compromised, the ISB has access to all government agencies with clearance lower than theirs"

"Then that means Sokolov knows we're searching the tunnels for him, Shit!"

The realisation dawned on both of them and it sank like a lead weight. Jack dashed out of the room and charged through the restaurant, almost barrelling over some of the smaller clients, he burst through the front door to the hotel and dove through the open window into the back seat,

"Get to HQ Now!"

His driver didn't need to be told twice, he put his foot to the floor and the SUV screeched out of the hotel grounds with it's lights and sirens blaring. As the driver expertly manoeuvred around the traffic, occasionally mounting the kerb where traffic was heavy and it was safe to do so, Jack called the control room at headquarters, a pleasantly soft female voice answered his call.

"Castelor Insurance, how can I direct your call?"

"This is Director Savage three double one alpha, we've been compromised initiate emergency code Avalanche, notify search teams to withdraw to staging areas immediately. This is not a drill"

"Code Avalanche understood, stand by"

"Make it snappy"

"Code is going out now sir"

"Good"

He put the phone down and buckled himself in, he could imagine the panic in the headquarters as they began cutting access outside the facility and freezing all systems until they could ensure that they were clean, but he was powerless to do anything else at the moment, all he could do is wait impatiently as the SUV sped through the traffic.

* * *

Beneath the city the TUSK units had cleared about two miles of tunnel so far, they were surprised to find that the tunnel wasn't just a roadway but it actually had several large chambers leading off from it, most of them were empty and the construction hadn't been completed, but where it had the rooms were full of wood and metal that was being used to create moulds for the concrete. They had come across a T junction and the tire tracks went in both directions, it was incredibly dark down here and they didn't want to get stuck down here for longer than necessary. They split up, two of the TUSK teams went one way while the remaining team along with Nick and Judy headed in the other. Some of the team had night vision, including Nick, and they were leading the group, the light from the teams flashlights was being reduced by special attachments in order for them to not stick out so much, but it made progress slow and they had to stop several times after getting disorientated when searching some of the larger chambers. They had come across what looked like a warehouse, hundreds of blue barrels sat stacked on top of one another or just dumped on the floor, they quickly scoured the room but found noone around, Nick pulled his t-shirt up from under his bullet proof armour and hooked it over his nose,

"That stuff burns, what is it?"

Judy covered her nose with a handkerchief that she always carried with her, in case she needed to pick something up and not leave prints on it, and crouched down next to one of the barrels that was lying on it's side with the lid off,

"Some sort of cleaning chemical"

She watched as some of the liquid ran down the lip of the barrel and dripped on to the floor,

"It's fresh, still dripping"

"Someone was here recently"

"looks like it"

Their earpieces crackled and a transmission came through, but it was horribly garbled and noone on the team could make out what was being said, the team leader called into his radio

"Control repeat, last transmission not received"

Another garbled call came through, they knew that being underground would interfere with the radio but they had no other means of getting through.

"Control please repeat last"

All they got back was static.

Nick sneezed as the fumes from the barrels continued irritated his nose,

"So what do we do now?"

Before the leader could respond a gunshot rang out in the distance and echoed around the walls, straight away everyone was on edge and listening out, more shots and yells rang out and they realised what was going on, their colleagues needed help.

* * *

Jack burst through the keycard door into the control room at Section 12 Headquarters, the room was full of mammals working furiously on their computers as the huge display monitor at the front of the room showed a red flashing alert and a progress bar under it that was close to being full,

"Where are we at people?"

From somewhere amongst the dozens of mammals a female voice called out

"Closing off the last of the connections now sir"

The bar on the screen finished filling up and the red flashing stopped. One of the workers close to Jack breathed out a sigh of relief, but Jack wasn't through yet,

"Alright listen up, we have a credible threat that our systems have been accessed by an external party with high level clearance. I want the entire network searched for any off site activity or anything that points to someone other than us having used it, understood?"

A chorus of Yes Sir was heard and everyone quickly got back to work, he didn't yet have any hard evidence that Church was involved with Sokolov as it could be someone else within his organisation that was helping him, but Jack couldn't take any chances. He picked up a phone and pressed the intercom button for the PA system and radios of the security personnel on patrol outside the building,

"Attention this is Director Savage, a possible intrusion has been detected, until further notice this facility is on Tactical Alert Status. Nobody comes in or out without my authorisation, all external communication has been secured until the source of the threat has been identified. All personnel are to report to their stations immediately, this is not a drill"

Jack was stood watching the bod screen as it flashed up with the huge data search that was being conducted by the control team. As the data streamed past at rapid speed sections of it were pulsing red, and the longer it went on the more of it pulsed showing that it had been accessed, everything from staff identity to evidence and intelligence was compromised. Jack started to bite the tip of his thumb as he was thinking, a bad habit of his that he couldn't stop and it was dead giveaway that he was really concerned. One of the section chiefs, a ginger tabby cat with dark stripes through his fur wearing a distinctive suit like Jacks walked over and stood next to him, he spoke quietly to Jack,

"What's going on sir?"

"We're being played, another agencies going against us, and we just got intell from the Carrington twins"

"sir they haven't uploaded it yet"

Jack stop biting his thumb and his face lit up some

"What did you say?"

"They were delayed getting here, they said they wanted to be absolutely sure that they had everything before returning, they got here just after you triggered Avalanche"

Jack's eyes went wide, they still had something that that the intruder didn't know about,

"Get them and your team to the briefing room now, I want that intell analysed and ready to go at a moments notice, we still have a chance"

"Yes sir"

Jack's mind was racing, he watched more of the network flash up as being compromised, but he still had hope, they weren't out of the game yet.

* * *

Nick and Judy ran through the tunnels with the TUSK team towards the sound of the gun battle that was ragging somewhere ahead of them, although the tunnel was large enough for a truck to drive through with ease it was still difficult to tell how far ahead of them the fighting was as the sound was bouncing off the walls. As they headed in the direction that the other teams took they came to another intersection and it took them a few uneasy moments to discern where the sound was coming from as they continued to hear screams and blasts from several different types of weapons. It was Judy, with her heightened sense of hearing, that figured out which direction the fighting was and they all charged down the tunnel after her. It wasn't long before they could see muzzle flashes in the distance and the quickly came across a group of agents taking cover behind a wall while the rest of their group was further up the tunnel shooting into a side chamber, half of Nick and Judy's group ran ahead to provide backup while the rest stayed to help. There were almost a dozen injured agents and Judy quickly began helping the teams medic to stabilise the wounded, Nick spotted the Rhino leader of team one and almost had to yell to be heard over the gunfire,

"What happened?"

"We split from team two at the intersection, not long after we heard gunfire. Found these guys like this, the rest of them are engaging a large force inside the chamber, one of the trucks is in there"

"How many are there?"

"I don't know, their heavily armed and know how to handle their weapons. They were up to something with the ceiling, lots of drilling equipment in there"

Nick grabbed his radio and called into it,

"Command this is Wilde do you copy?"

All he received as static,

"Wilde the lines are fucked, whatever this tunnels lined with is interfering with it"

Judy called over as she wrapped a bandage around a boars leg that was bleeding heavily

"we need to fall back, these guys need a hospital"

Nick nodded in agreement, he turned to the team leader,

"Did you find any exits?"

"Yeah, the tunnel we searching second chamber on the left there's a ladder that looks like it leads to the surface, we didn't have time to call it in before shit hit the fan"

"How far is it?"

"About 200 yards"

"Alright move everyone to the chamber and call for backup, well try and hold them until help"

He was cut off by yelling from one of the team members that was fighting outside the chamber, they turned to see all of them running as fast as they could back towards them,

"Get back get the fuck!"

A bright flash coming from the chamber illuminated the tunnel, before Nick could do anything he was swept of his feet by a blast of air and slammed into the tunnel wall knocking him out.

* * *

The briefing room at Section 12 was a large rectangular room with a metal table that could sit twenty mammals, a white board was mounted on the wall and a projector that was hanging from the ceiling was displaying a road map of the city on it. A number of locations had been circled in board pen, Jack and ten other mammals from one of the investigation sub sections were going through the documents that the Carrington twins, an ocelot brother and sister team, had brought back from Hydes residence, they had cleared out his safe and had found a briefcase in a hidden compartment in his office floor full of paperwork implicating the involvement of a number of high ranking officials and agents from other departments. The tabby cat in charge of the section circled the last location on the list and stood back to get a good look. All together there were eighteen locations spread across every district in the city,

"That's a lot of places boss, even if we had all our teams ready and able there's no way we could do a strike on all locations"

"Agreed, I need to call Director Samuels to get more support units, however we need to make sure we're secured before I can do that"

"How long will it take for reinforcements to arrive?"

"Ten hours after I get authorisation I can have 200 strike agents here from the capital, but that doesn't leave us much time"

The tabby looked at the clock on the wall, it was 4pm,

"Forty hours until the carnival starts, assuming we get reinforcements tonight there's still no guarantee that we'll find the trucks. We need to seriously consider cancelling everything sir"

"I've already talked to the committee about that, they wont do it"

"Why not? Don't they know how many citizens lives are at risk?"

"Their argument is that doing so would be submitting to the enemy. I don't agree with it, but all they will allow is putting extra security on site"

"A lot of good that will do, the carnival route is open and easy to get a truck through, we cant barricade everywhere"

"That's why we have to pour everything into this as fast as we can"

There was a low beep from the intercom on the desk and the voice of the female white hare from the control room came through,

"Director Savage, we've finished scouring the network"

Jack pressed the red button on the intercom,

"Good, we'll be there in a moment"

Jack and the tabby cat headed out of the briefing room and onto the corridor towards the control room when the whole building shook.

* * *

Nick slowly opened his eyes half way but all he could see was fuzzy darkness. All he could hear was a high pitched ringing, the smell of smoke filled his nostrils as the taste of blood was on his tongue. His head droop down but he snapped it back up and opened his eyes fully, the fuzziness began to clear and he could see the flickering of a large blaze burning in the tunnel, rubble was lying everywhere and he could just make out the shapes of mammals lying on the floor. He still hadn't come to his senses properly as his head was pounding, the fire was starting to spread, all he could do was watch as it reached one of the mammals who started to flail, but he soon stopped moving as it engulfed him, he wasn't sure but he thought he heard him screaming as his hearing began to return. Nick was slumped against the wall, putting both his paws on the floor he pushed against it to help him get up, but he yelled in pain and fell back down as his right shoulder burned in pain, looking over at it could see a six inch piece of metal sticking through his armour. He tried to pull it out with his left paw but it was stuck fast and was excruciating so he left it. Leaning heavily on his left arm he slowly pushed himself up and looked around amongst the carnage as he called out,

"Carrots..Judy.."

He couldn't see her anywhere and the smoke was building up making it harder to see, he could see a few of the team starting to move and pull themselves away from the fire best they could but many more were not moving at all. Slowly he limped further down the tunnel away from the fire as he called out Judy's name again and again, he was getting more and more worried the longer he searched. He wiped some blood from his nose and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor, as his nose cleared he caught a familiar scent, with renewed vigour he made a beeline straight for it and came across a pile of rubble, he clawed away at it and quickly found Judy buried underneath. She had a large cut across the top of her head that was bleeding, he tapped on her shoulder as he called her name,

"Judy..Judy wake up, can you hear me?"

Her eyes flickered open for a moment, her voice was week and she looked confused,

"Nick? What's going on?"

"Something bad happened, I don't know what exactly. I need to get you out of here"

Her eyes closed and she passed out, he gently scooped her up with his good arm, it reminded him of when he used to carry their kits when they were younger, he wished he could go back to those times when the city was quieter and people weren't trying to kill everyone. A few of the other agents were dragging their more badly injured colleagues away from the encroaching blaze, but it was clear that not many had made it. The air was quickly becoming unbreathable with the thick smoke, Nick stumbled along the tunnel wall, he was quickly running out of steam and collapsed to his knees puffing and panting, he was losing a lot of blood and was too weak to get back up. As panic began to set in he felt an arm wrap around him and he was lifted off the floor, the Rhino who was leading team one picked the two of them up with ease, he had a piece of debris in his jaw and his armour was badly damaged. Nobody said anything, they were all still too stunned to understand what had happened. The rhino, followed by seven other survivors, managed to find their way to the chamber with the ladder, it was an empty room and the sound of the blaze echoed around them. It took them some time, but they helped each of the agents to climb the long ladder to a plain concrete room with a heavy metal door. The rhino slid the huge metal bars that locked it from the inside and pressed his weight against it as a lion and tiger joined him, after a few moments there was a creaking noise as the rusted door started to buckle, a loud crunching noise came from it and the door popped open. They stepped into a storage room filled with racks of clothing in clear vacuum packaging and the sounds of sirens could be heard clearly somewhere above them, the rhino put Nick and Judy down, Nick kept her held tight against him as the other agents collapsed against the floor and tried to recover their breath. The tiger that had helped open the door called out at the top of his voice,

"Hello. Anybody there. Hello?!"

A few moments went by before a door at the other end of the room opened and a female voice called out,

"Hello, who's there?"

"Federal agents, we need an ambulance"

Footsteps could be heard against the floor and a middle aged sheep in a pair of black jeans and a yellow top walked around one of the storage racks into the view of everyone, her hooves went up to her mouth in shock for a moment before she turned and yelled back through the door,

"John get in here, bring the first aid kit"

She ran over and was unsure of what to do,

"Where did you?"

She saw the open rusty metal door behind them and a pile of broken plasterboard on the floor, the door had obviously been covered over years ago and they had no idea it was even there, a younger male sheep in his early twenties wearing shorts and t-shirt ran into the room carrying a green bag and his eyes bulged out of his head,

"Holy shit"

"John held them out best you can, I'm going to get help"

She ran back where she had come from and John put the first aid kit down on the ground and unzipped it, seeing Nick was the most injured he pulled out a roll of bandages and wrapped it tightly around the wound to stem the bleeding,

"My God, you must of been close to it"

Nick was barely able to pay attention let alone answer, the rhino looked at him confused,

"Close to what?"

"Haven't you heard?"

He quickly tied the bandage and pulled out his phone, pressed a few buttons then passed it to the rhino to see, a live news feed was playing from a helicopter hovering over the route that the carnival was due to take, an army of emergency service vehicles are scattered around, where the road used to be was nothing more than a huge smoking hole.

* * *

Hospitals around the city were quickly filling up with the hundreds of mammals injured in the massive explosion that blew a 50 yard hole in the street, with the cities yearly carnival less than two days away the road had been closed and dozens of mammals were hard at work setting everything up. A stage was being built on the side of the road for local bands to play on while the procession of thousands of mammals was due to pass by, now everything was covered in rubble and blood from the unfortunate victims. The fronts of buildings near the site were completely destroyed, and those in the proximity of the explosion who weren't initially harmed by it fell victim to falling debris and glass from windows that rained down on the streets bellow. A Major incident had been declared and every available emergency worker was called in to help, but it was still far larger than anything that the city had experienced before and it was stretched to breaking point. The only hospital with a service personnel ward that hadn't been commandeered and used to treat the injured was St Mary's on the other side of the city and it took the ambulances carrying Nick Judy and the TUSK survivors almost an hour to get through the traffic that had built up after several routes had been closed as a precaution. Every available doctor and surgeon was ready for them and those that needed it were rushed into surgery. The commotion that was throughout the hospital, as the call was received that more injured parties were going to be sent down, caused staff to be drawn from the other wards to help prepare the hospital for their arrival. One of the patients at the hospital, who had woken not long ago, was concerned as she listened to the commotion, and pressed the nurse call button at the side of her bed. A few minutes later the door opened and Dr Madge entered the room and headed over to her bed,

"Agent Schwartzpelz? I'm surprised that you're awake"

"I had some help with that. Where's Max?"

"He snuck out of the hospital this morning"

"What's going on, why is everyone rushing around?"

"There's been an explosion on Moss Street in the Rainforest District"

"What? How bad is it?"

"Very bad, look I have to help prepare for the victims coming in soon, I'll have someone come to you as soon as they can"

Madge dashed out of the room leaving her alone with her thoughts. She brought her amputated arm out in front of her, her heart sank as she though of what it meant for her future now. While she was unconscious she felt like she was floating in a void and she could hear Max talking to her. He had told her what had happened to her, and what he was going to do, so she had already had time to work some things out, she was strong willed and prosthetic technology had come along way over the past few years, especially for those in law enforcement, but they still were nowhere near as capable as having the real thing. As she tried to way up her options the door opened again, she could see someone in a doctors jacket with their back to her stood by the door and she heard a click as he turned the lock. A deep and slightly muffled voice came from him,

"Hello Claire"

He turned around and her heart began to race as she realised who it was, stood in front of her with a gun in his paw was Sokolov.


	14. Chapter 14

In a specially constructed hall hidden fifteen storeys bellow ground, and built with five feet thick reinforced concrete, a large group of mammals were meeting in the capital to discuss what was happening in Zootopia. They were all sat around a large oval wooden table that could fit sixty and there were enough rows of benches stretching out either side of the table to sit three hundred. The hall had been built more than fifty years ago to allow the government to continue to operate in the event of a war that never came, but anybody watching would be hard pressed to think this wasn't as serious. Mammals from various species from rodents to elephants were gathered, all of them had been watching the large cinema like screen at the far end of the hall as a female cheetah with thick fur stood away from the others talking on her cell. It was only an hour after the attack but the death toll was already standing at 168 with nearly five hundred injured so far. It was clear that things in the city were rapidly spiralling to breaking point with emergency services reporting that they were stretched to the limits trying to deal with a situation that nobody had been trained for. The large screen had been split into three with the larger central window showing the news and the smaller windows either side showing two faces, one was of the Mammalia Bureau of Investigations National Director Joey Samuels and the other of Church, they were all linked into an emergency conference call. The cheetah finished her call and sat down at the end of the table and cleared her throat before gesturing to Church's feed,

"For those of you who don't know this is Major Neighland Christoph of the Interior Security Bureau. I've just spoken with the President. She is on her way back from Europe right now and will be landing in seven hours, we have until then to organise an effective response to this situation. I'm aware that there is belief of a second impending attack?"

Director Samuels answered her, his connection was crackly and distant sirens could be heard in the background as his office was only a mile from the blast site.

"That's correct Madam Secretary, Section 12 was investigating a truck filled with chemical weapons, however nobody saw this one coming"

"What kind of chemical?"

"It's new but has been described as Nighthowlers on crack"

"My god. How soon is the attack due?"

"Intelligence points to it happening in around thirty eight hours"

"That doesn't give us much time, where is Regional Director Savage? I would like see the intell before I brief the President"

"We don't know where he is Ma'am"

A heavily overweight rhino who was smoking a cigar interrupted, his southern drawl was thick,

"What do you mean you don't know, he's your subordinate isn't he?"

"Just before the attack S12 HQ reported a potential intrusion, as per procedure lock-down was initiated. Nobody's heard from them since, we don't even know if they are aware of what's happened"

"How could they not know?"

"The lock-down procedure is automated, once triggered it cuts all communications with the outside world and the only entrance to the facility is sealed with a blast door that can only be unlocked once the lock-down has been lifted. Something that can only be done from inside the facility"

Muttering to noone in particular he mumbled

"Who the hell designs these things"

"Cold war paranoia I'm afraid, it's a re-purposed bunker not a fresh build"

The cheetah gave the rhino a filthy look for interrupting her and she took over again,

"What intrusion?"

"They believe that someone accessed their systems, unknown who the culprit is"

"I don't like the sound of that director, if they have been breached then what impact will that have on us?"

"Very little, they have a self contained system, nothing that links back to our systems in the capital"

"That's not what I meant, need I remind you that there is an alien working in that group, if he gets hold of that information then a lot of damage can be done"

"Yes Ma'am"

"What's the situation on the ground, we can see the news reports but we haven't been able to get hold of Commissioner Bogo or the other Sections"

"It's a mess down here, after the blast it was determined that the bomb was likely remote detonated, we've had to block cellular networks in case the second device is already active"

"Who's in charge down there?"

"ZPD are coordinating ground response, they're having a lot of difficulty ma'am"

"What about your agency?"

"All we have in the city is S12 and a dozen agents at a satellite office who are trying to assist ZPD command"

"You have only a dozen agents? Why hasn't there been more agents in the city when a terrorist attack was known to be imminent?"

"Begging your pardon Madam Secretary but I requested authority to deploy large scale units yesterday, but it was rejected by the intelligence select committee for being too brash a response, you're now seeing the results"

She turned to another cheetah sat just behind her and to the side,

"Find out who rejected that request"

A lion in a military uniform with a gold star on his shoulders asked,

"Madam secretary I have a quick reaction force stationed a hundred miles away, we could have units in the city within five hours if given the go ahead"

"General that would be like using an axe to conduct surgery, the situation is bleak but sending the army in is not what I would consider to be a viable option at this stage, I don't want five thousand heavily armed troops being affected by a nighthowler lookalike if it is active"

She turned back to the TV when Church called out to her,

"Madam Secretary I have an option for you"

"Go on"

"My team and I are situated in the city already by your request, we're trained in crisis management as well as other things as you well know. We're a small team which can allow us to move in ways the army can't and we have the skills to conduct operations in this type of environment. If you sign us off we can help guide the ZPD, as well as find Sokolov for you"

Joey's crackly voice didn't give the cheetah any time to respond,

"Section 12 is already hunting him"

"You already said that they are in lock-down, until it's lifted their investigation is stalled and we don't have time to wait to see if they turn up again"

"I realise time is short but they have something no other agency has, Max Langdon"

"Right, the alien. Who's bright idea was it to give an alien a position in one of our security agencies in the first place? Director Savage. And now he's unaccounted for as well as the alien in question, lets also not forget that the terrorist is an alien themselves that comes from the same world that he does, does anyone else see the high likelihood that it was Max who told Sokolov where and how to attack?"

"How dare you talk about my staff like that!"

"Your staff? What do you know about them Director? Nothing at all, everything about them was taken at face value, you have no idea what they're intentions are, for all we know they are here to kill as many as possible!"

"Enough!"

The cheetah snapped loudly and thumped her fist against the table making everyone in the room jump slightly, she took a moment to compose herself,

"I can understand where both of you are coming from, I have read the reports from each of you regarding your views at the beginning when they arrived, but this is our national security that we are discussing, not a pissing contest"

"Sorry Ma'am"

"Understood Madam Secretary"

"Now then, Director Samuels I am going to ask you a direct question and I want a no bullshit yes or no answer. Since the blast have you had any contact with any member of Section 12?"

There was a pause, Joey sighed and had no choice but to answer truthfully,

"No Ma'am, I have not had any contact"

"Then I have no choice but to go with Major Christoph's assessment that they have been compromised. Director Samuels you are to issue immediate orders for the arrest and detention of all members of Section 12, including Director Savage, until such time that we can ascertain whether or not any of them were involved in this attack"

"But Ma'am"

"No buts Director, we cannot risk having a traitor in our ranks, especially when such high stakes are at risk. Major Christoph I want you to deploy your team as you see fit, you have emergency authority so please act accordingly, If you have the opportunity then detain Langdon, if he refuses then use whatever force you deem necessary but Sokolov is kill on sight. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal clear Ma'am"

* * *

Claire's heart was racing, stood by the locked door to her room was Sokolov wearing a long doctors coat, his black mask and yellow eyes made him look like something out of a horror movie and it sent a shiver down her spine as she spotted the large pistol in his paw. He glanced out of the observation window and closed the curtains with a draw string,

"We wont be wanting any interruptions now would we"

He walked casually towards her while keeping the gun trained on her, she stayed still and watched him closely for any opportunity to act, and could see one coming. Once he had reached the side of her bed he leaned over and pulled the cable connected to the nurses button out of the wall, but as he did so she flung the covers off the bed and lunged at him, jabbing her stump into his throat and grabbing for the gun with her good arm. He stumbled backwards and she almost had a grip on the barrel before he let it drop to the floor out of reach, he grabbed her with both his arms, one paw around her throat and the other he grabbed a pawfull of the patients clothing around her stomach and lifted her into the air with little effort before throwing her against the headrest of the oversized bed. The impact knocked the wind out of her, she gasped for air and was about to try again before she heard an unmistakable click, she looked over to him to see that he had picked the gun back up and had it trained one her head, the hammer locked back and ready to fire. She wanted to yell for help but nothing came out, she braced herself for the shot, but instead Sokolov de-cocked the hammer and put it in a holster inside the dark blue suit that he was wearing beneath the doctors coat.

"You've certainly got fire in you, I can see why Max has stuck with you, usually he would have left by now"

"You're not here to kill me?"

He grabbed the chair that Max had been sitting on and moved it to the foot of her bed near the window and sat down facing her,

"That depends on you Claire, I came here with the intention of talking to you. But if you want a fight then I'll kill you"

Claire sat herself up but kept her distance from him, if he was going to try anything then she wanted to increase her chances any way possible.

"Alright, what do you want?"

"I want Max, more specifically I want him to live"

"You could have fooled me, your people have tried to kill us at every turn"

"Delay not kill, If I wanted Max dead then I would have waited with my rifle at the railyard for him and we wouldn't be having this conversation, you would be in your little armoured bunker beneath the tower block twiddling your thumbs looking for any clues as to were I am"

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Don't play dumb with me Claire it's beneath you. I know about Section 12, I know where it is, I know what you've found and what your bosses think of Max. I also know who you really are, been telling lies to Max haven't you, signal corps pfft, is that what they call deniable operations these days?"

Her eyes went wide and she could feel the blood draining form her face

"How the hell do you know?"

"A certain mammal has been keeping me up to date on everything, I've been several steps ahead of you since this all started. But now I've come to a crossroads you see, and which path I take will have profound effects, so I wont make the decision, instead you are going to"

A smirk appeared on his face, or as much as one that the mask would allow, the look in his eyes made her skin crawl and she gulped involuntarily.

"For you to make this decision you need to be brought up to speed, a little history lesson if you will. The Thihir condition is complicated, it forcefully amplifies certain aspects of those affected, we are all stronger, faster and tougher than any normal mammal, but it also specialises us. Mine for instance allows me to see things the way others can't, it's what keeps me ahead of the curve and has made it impossible for anyone to capture me so far. Max's speciality on the other paw is his brutality, when he was found by the rescue teams after the breach that turned him was finally closed it took a couple of rhinos to pin him down after he had torn his way through several soldiers. He is incredibly violent, but violence is useful in war and so he was spared, subjected to conditioning by the council, and used as a weapon. It took a long time and a number of painful experiments to finally get him under control, it was so bad that he doesn't remember it, blocked it out. In the end they linked his violence to a handler, one mammal that he would recognise subconsciously as being in control, normally he would act and appear as an other agent that protected our world, but when the handler releases him you don't want to be in the area, there's a reason he's known as the butcher amongst the scum of our world."

"That sounds far fetched even from what I've seen of your world"

"Is it? Your government experimented with mind control during the cold war, and some came close to success from what I've read, is it so hard to imagine it actually existing? Handlers are an Agents lifeline, it would be easy for them to keep in touch, they feed intell and keep them up to date in the field"

She didn't answer, there was a lot about their kind that nobody knew about, and they had already seen some crazy stuff that they thought impossible previously, but she still didn't want to take him on his word.

"Max has worked alone for years, he doesn't do it out of choice, it's too dangerous to keep others around him when he's working, he injured seven other agents in the space of two years because once he gets going he cant tell the difference between a target and a bystander, except for one. Sarah managed to get through to him better than any other, so much so that he grew attached to her, she was fiery, like you"

"What, you saying I'm his replacement for her?"

"In a matter of speaking. It's all subconscious, he doesn't realise it's happening, as far as he's concerned your works partners and he's looking out for you. However others in high positions are noticing changes in his behaviour, and it's scaring them. I'm sure you've seen his small outbursts, his snapping at colleagues or his heavy pawdness to others, did he ever snap at you?"

"No but I'm not the only one he hasn't snapped at"

"That's true, but after your surgery he came in here and made sure you would survive, before seeking revenge"

"Revenge?"

"He killed Hyde and his guards, he's on his way right now to kill Angie as well"

"What?!"

"It's true, you only have to ask your colleagues when they arrive. They are responsible for hurting you, now he's going to hurt them. This brings us to the second part that you have to know. I know that Angie let her mouth run away with her and she told you about the tunnels beneath the city and our intention of blowing up the carnival, the mammal who provided me with the information in the first place holds a position of power within the government, you know him as Church"

"Church is helping you?!"

"Helped. I have been told that I have a silver tongue, and granted I do have a good track record of manipulating mammals to do what I want, I wasn't a spymaster for no reason. But Church could give me a run for my money, he fed us information for months about the tunnels, the upcoming events, which of the mob bosses in the city would likely back my group and the best way to approach them, everything I needed to know about this city and how it is run was given to me on a silver platter saving me valuable time and effort"

"Why would he do something like that?"

"To get himself a better position, I've seen it done before, unscrupulous mammals with the desire for power have set others up only to pull the rug out from under them at the last minute, some have got away with it too. He is now trying to pull the rug out from me, I wouldn't mind if he was just targeting me, I can get around him easily, but he's not just after me, he's after Max as well"

"Max hasn't done anything, he's been helping us every step of this investigation"

"Exactly, he knows what you do, and he knows me. Church fears that he can connect the dots, see things that you can't and that puts Church at risk. He's going to kill Max, and after his attack on Hyde and Angie Church is going to have grounds to do so and not a single mammal in the government will bat an eye"

"Why are you concerned for Max? He wants to kill you after what you did to Sarah"

"Ah Sarah, she was a lovely mammal, at face value. She was an assassin not a pen pusher, one of the councillors wanted to kill Max back in our world after one of his friends got caught up in an operation Max was part of. I caught wind of this and decided to sent a message with her to the council, Max still thinks of her but that's more from conditioning I think. As for why I want him alive, I have big plans for Max, plans that would be spoiled if he was to die before they came to fruition"

"If you know about Churches plan why don't you stop it yourself, why come to me?"

"If I stop him then it looks like Church was right, if you stop him then he can be brought down"

"Why should I?"

"Because I don't think you're the kind of mammal that would sell out her partner and allow him to die needlessly. So here are your choices, option one you stand against Church and protect Max, you don't need to do it for long, events will transpire soon that will keep him alive, in return I will disappear and leave you and the city to recover for one year, if you find me in that time then so be it but I very much doubt you will"

"And option two?"

"Max dies by Churches paw, and I detonate the chemical bomb, there's enough compound in there to turn twenty percent of the cities population into savage animals in less than a minute. I'll let you decide agent, just to let you know Church is already getting the ball rolling, so don't take long deciding"

Claire was wide eyed as she watched him put his doctors coat back on, her mind was racing from what had just been dumped on her. Sokolov walked up to the mirror-less dresser that held a spare pair of clothes provided by the hospital and her personnel effects, he took his gun out and put it on top of it along with a small black USB stick,

"You're going to need this, Max has taken the guns from your safehouse"

He unlocked the door and walked out of the room. She quickly got up and grabbed the gun, pressed the end of the slide down against the dresser to make sure it was loaded and dashed out into the hall after him but he was nowhere to be seen. There was only a couple of nurses as the rest had gone to help with the blast victims, Claire held the gun behind her so as not to scare them when someone grabbed her arm from behind, she snapped her head around to see the coyote that had been gaurding Max,

"Spencer what are you doing here?"

"Getting you out of here, C'mon there's no time to explain"

* * *

Spencer ushered Claire through the staff area of the hospital just as two officers from the ZPD arrived and began searching for her. Her bright blue patient garb was far too noticeable and so she grabbed a tracksuit that had been left on a bench inside the staff locker rooms as they ran through, they only slowed down when they had dashed out from one of the side exits used by maintenance workers to bring items into the building and slammed it shut behind them. Spencer dragged a heavy bin in front of the door and kicked the brakes on, he turned around just in time catch Claire finish putting the track suit on, the pistol Sokolov had left her sitting in the waistband around the back.

"Where did you get that?"

"Sokolov"

"How the fuck?!"

"It's a long story, what the hell is going on Spence?"

"Orders came down from the top brass to arrest all of us in S12, they think one of us helped Sokolov attack the city"

"Are they mad? We're the ones trying to prevent this"

"I know, smells like a set up to me. Jack left me to watch over you before the shit hit the fan, my cars round the corner lets go"

They walked casually across the busy parking lot, there were a lot of other mammals going back and forth and it helped them blend in. They quickly got in with Spencer behind the wheel and he pulled out onto the road leading to the exit, as he did the two ZPD officers that were looking for her walked out the front door about fifty feet away right across their path,

"Oh shit"

Spencer looked like he was about to panic and Claire put her paw on his leg,

"Calm down, act natural"

The officers looked straight at them through the window of the car, but they turned and continued walking through the parking lot, Spencer kept the car slow and steady till it was onto the main road where he quickly increased his speed to get as much distance between them and the cops as possible.

"Where are you going Spencer?"

"Beach promenade, I have a key to one of our safe houses there"

"We can't go there"

"Why not?"

"If they are after us then we have to assume they know where the safe houses are"

He slapped the steering wheel with his palm

"Fuck. What do you think we should do?"

"Head to an apartment complex on Palm view at 75th and 112th avenue, we need to get there quickly"

"I can do quickly"

He put his foot down and screeched down the freeway, although he was not a very good investigator by ZBI standards he was an excellent driver, something that Claire realised she might never be able to do again as she looked at her stump. Shaking the thought she took her cell phone out and tried to call Jack, but instead of getting any signal all she was met with was silence.

"What the hell?"

"Cell phones have been blocked, they think the bomb was remote triggered"

"Dammit, what about radios? I need to get hold of Jack urgently"

Spencer shot down the road and barely managed to squeeze between two trucks making Claire inhale sharply as they had only an inch either side, she was impressed that he didn't even skip a beat and he swung the car around a tight corner straight after and accelerated further,

"Encrypted channels work but they're probably being monitored, we cant get through to HQ either"

"Why not?"

"Just before the blast Jack triggered Avalanche, they've been on lock down since, no communications at all"

"What about TUSK?"

"There were three teams next to the bomb when it went off, most of them are dead or injured"

"What?! So we're on our own?"

"I've managed to get hold of six other agents who were off site when everything went down, but I don't know if they can help"

"fucking hell"

"you said it"

It took a long time to cut a path through the traffic as they headed away from the bomb site, as a precaution the ZPD had evacuated a huge area around the site as well as shutting down the entire metro system, thousands of mammals that had intended to use the trains had instead been forced to take their cars, this greatly increased the number of cars in their path, it also didn't help that many roads had been closed to allow emergency vehicles to get about with little delay, this created bottlenecks in some places that took them longer to get through than they wanted with them moving at a snails pace, but once they had got through these they had a clear path to palm view. Along the way she had explained to Spencer what had happened in the hospital and what they had found out, he understood what she was doing, and even though he didn't like the sound of it he agreed to help her out the best he could. As they descended the off ramp from an overhead highway they could see the apartment complex, Claire was worried with what they saw, the building had many of its windows sealed shut with metal plates that had been drilled into the walls, it was covered in gang graffiti and what few windows remained in the upper floors were either smashed or covered with curtains. Spencer pulled to a stop in an alley opposite and the two of them got out. He popped the trunk and helped Claire put on a holster that was in a a solid metal case built into the base of the trunk, the gun that Sokolov had left her was an upgraded model of the service pistol they used and luckily for her, or planning on his part, the spare mags that Spencer had fit it. Spencer had pulled out a shotgun and some spare shells as Claire was trying to figure out how she was going to be able to change magazines quickly with only one hand when gunshots and screams rang out from the complex.


	15. Chapter 15

The clanging sound of metal hitting metal every few seconds echoed through the entrance corridor to the Section 12 Headquarters. The entire facility had been plunged into darkness when the blast went off, they were only a mile away from the blast and the shockwave had knocked out the power. With the facility being rushed into use it was still under construction in certain areas and the backup generator hadn't been installed yet, luckily for them one of the agents was an electrical engineer before joining the ZBI and she was hard at work trying to repair the main power, but it was taking a long time. With a flashlight in paw Jack walked into the entrance corridor and saw the tabby cat in charge of one of the investigative teams swinging a fire axe at the solid metal blast door that had closed when the lock-down was triggered. His jacket and tie were lying on the floor and he had placed his flashlight on it pointing at the door so he could see what he was doing, his shirt was soaked with sweat and the dozens of scrape marks on the doors paint showed he had been at this for some time, yet there wasn't a single dent or groove in the metal. Jack sat down against the wall and watched the cat strike the door a few more times before making himself known.

"Darell you should save your strength, that things made to take a direct hit from a rocket and still carry on working"

Darell let the axe hang loose in his paw and he stood back for a minute to survey what he had done,

"I feel I have to at least try sir"

"How many times do I have to tell you to drop the formality when talking to me, we've known each other for ten years"

"Sorry, old habits and all that"

Darell took another swing at the door, the metal clanked again but there was another splintering sound, looking at the handle he could see it had split and the axe head was coming off. Frustrated he chucked it on the floor and slumped down next to Jack to catch his breath.

"Well that didn't work, at least we have plenty of food and water here to last us, now we just need to find a pack of cards to keep us occupied"

Jack chuckled

"I think there's one in Wilde's desk draw"

"That should take care of any boredom"

He looked over and could see Jacks left arm tensed up and shaking slightly, he was trying to cover it up with his other arm but Darell could tell something was up,

"You alright Jack?"

"No, no I'm not. In all the confusion this morning with Max disappearing and us being set up I forgot to pick up my meds"

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad, I'm well past needing another dose"

"It's going to get worse isn't it"

Jack didn't say anything, he just nodded slowly

"Staying here isn't going to do you any good, Lets head back to the others"

* * *

Spencer had just helped Claire put on a shoulder holster and grabbed his shotgun from the trunk of his cruiser when multiple gunshots, yelling and screaming could be heard coming from the apartment complex across the street from them. Worrying that one of the mammals yelling was Max Claire ran straight to the front door catching Spencer by surprise and causing him to rush to try and catch up, as she was about to go in with her gun drawn Spencer grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and stopped her, she was going to snap at him but he stepped in front and kept his shotgun aimed through the door into the empty entrance lobby.

"Stay behind me, I don't want to catch you with any pellets"

"Alright. Angie has the whole of the top floor"

Another two shots rang out followed by a long burst of automatic fire. With Spencer a couple of feet in front the two of them made their way up the staircase coming off of the lobby. The building had five stories and had a hundred apartments with twenty on each floor, it took up much of the city block but it had been left to fall apart just like many of the buildings in this area as public funding was drying up allowing gangs like Angie's to take over with ease. As they reached the third floor they came across the body of a yak, it's chest was shredded and there was blood splattered up the wall next to him. More shots rang out that sounded very close and they could hear someone running towards them, with panic in his face and nan Uzi in his paw a jaguar ran down the staircase from the floor above, his vest had three slashes across his chest like claw marks and he was sweating profusely. He spotted Claire and Spencer and stopped out of shock, Spencer had his gun levelled at the jaguars chest,

"Federal Agent's drop the gun"

The jaguar's eyes were wide and he was shaking,

"Drop it now!"

He could hear the jaguar breathing rapidly and it flipped the Uzi up, Spencer and Claire waisted no time and fired at him knocking him off his feet. Claire took a step forward and a burst of fire came down the stairwell, missing her by inches and peppering the floor next to her, Spencer spun around and fired three blasts up the stairwell as he leaned over, a spray of blood rained down on them and a goat fell half over the banister. An antelope came out of an apartment behind Spencer and charged at him with a bat raised to hit him over the head but Claire shot it in the chest twice and it fell to the ground, the bat landed by Spencer's feet and bounced down the stairs. The floor above them was in total chaos and they cautiously continued moving up, as Spencer loaded more shells into the shotgun a female hyena spun around the corner and swung a machete at his head making him duck, the machete took a chunk out of the wall but the hyena didn't stop. She swung the machete wildly at his head, he had to use the shotgun to keep the blade at bay, Claire couldn't get a shot as the two were fighting so tightly, as the hyena went to put more of a swing into her next swing it gave Spencer an opening, he let go of his shotgun and shoved his shoulder into her stomach lifting her up and slamming her into the wall, the hyena grabbed the back of his jacket and went to plunge the blade into his spine but she was now open and Claire fired three shots into her head. The slide on her gun locked back, she put it under her bad arm and tried to get the empty magazine out to reload, Spencer quickly grabbed his shotgun just in time and shot a boar as it charged up the stairs behind her making him collapse into a heap on the floor. She managed to get a new magazine in and released the slide, she covered the stairs as Spencer peaked around the corner of the fifth floor,

"oh my god"

"What is it?"

"It's a bloody slaughter"

They both went round the corner, Spencer kept their rear covered as Claire lead them slowly along the corridor. The corridor was littered with dead bodies and there was blood everywhere, almost every mammal had been shot but a couple of them looked to have been clawed to death, the lights overhead were flickering and they could hear movement from one of the apartments on their left. Claire caught Spencer's attention and gestured to the apartment with an open door that was hanging on only one hinge, he nodded and went to the edge of the door. Spencer held up on paw and counted down from three to one, the two of them burst in and found a deer on his back on the floor in a pool of blood, his stomach slashed open and a knife stuck in his chest, blood was running out of his nose and mouth and he was struggling to breath, tears were running down his face. They were both horrified, neither of them could do anything for him and didn't know what to do, the deer looked like he was trying to say something but all he could manage was some gurgling as bubbles filled the blood coming form his mouth. A gunshot and a yell of pain made them spin around and head back into the corridor, from an apartment at the end of the hall they saw a female black bear dragging herself out of the door, blood was pouring from her leg, Spencer went to help but Claire grabbed his shotgun and pointed it down as she recognised her as Angie. Walking out of the door slowly behind the panicking Angie was Max, his cloths were ripped and it looked like he had been shot several times as there were several patches of blood soaking his shirt, his claws were out on his left paw and a pistol was in his other, he looked absolutely seething. Angie was whimpering as she rolled over to look at Max, tears were streaming down her face and it looked like it had been slashed along one side, she raised one paw out towards him but he fired a bullet through it sending one of her fingers flying across the corridor, she fell backwards grabbing at the paw,

"I'm ISB you stupid fuck, do you have any idea what Church is going to do to you when he catches you?"

"I don't really care, you hurt my friend and now you are going to suffer"

He stepped away from her and walked over to one of the dead mammals nearby,

"Go on, do your worst, it doesn't matter, he's already won"

Max picked up a shotgun and racked the slide, Claire stepped forward and called out his name, he turned his head and looked her in the eyes, he wasn't hiding his eyes any more and she could see his anger subside for a moment before Angie opened her mouth again,

"Oh look, if it isn't Jack's bitch. Love the missing arm"

"I'd keep your mouth shut if I were you"

"Why? I'm not scared of you bitch"

Max put the barrel of the shotgun against her right shoulder,

"It's me you should be scared of"

He pulled the trigger almost severing her arm completely, her scream of agony was deafening and Spencer felt sick to his stomach, he quickly went back to the stairs not wanting to see any more and he kept an eye out for any of her goons who decided to come back when he spotted something through the window, two black cars screeching to a halt outside and eight heavily armed mammals in battle uniforms getting out.

"Oh shit"

He ran back into the corridor and saw Max standing on the wound on Angie's shoulder, what worried him wasn't so much what Max was doing but that Claire looked like she was OK with him doing it, he didn't have time to question them about it though,

"We need to go, we need to go right now!"

Claire looked at him and then to the stairs,

"What's going on?"

"ISB are here"

"How that's not poss...Oh shit your cruiser has an anti theft tracker in it"

She grabbed Max's arm and made him look at her,

"We don't have time for this, finish it and lets go"

She dashed off after Spencer who was heading to the other end of the building, as they had driven up the road from the other side he had spotted a fire escape and he was looking for an apartment that lead onto it. Spotting the rusted ladder through a window he ran up to it and tried to open it, it was jammed shut through years where it hadn't been used and so he smashed it with the butt of the shotgun, there was nobody bellow so he slung the shotgun over his shoulder and climbed out and gave Claire a paw in climbing out. As she climbed out they heard the blast of a shotgun, when they were halfway down the building Spencer asked,

"What the hell has gotten into him?"

"vengeance is a dish best served cold"

They had just reached the bottom floor when Max clambered out of the window and slid down the ladder, Spencer spotted a car parked up on the side of the road fifty yards away and he ran over to it as Max and Claire kept watch, rifle shots could be heard from inside as the ISB agents made sure that the mammals inside were dead. It only took a few moments for Spencer to hot wire the car with his multi-tool and they quickly ran over to it, Max opened the door and pushed Claire inside as a shot ran out from the window they had climbed out of, the bullet pinged off the car roof and Max spun round emptying his pistol at the window causing the agents to take cover. Spencer gunned the engine and Max got his foot inside just in time as the car quickly sped off as it took more fire from the ISB agents. Spencer swung the car onto the main road and put his foot down, they had got almost half a mile away when they spotted the two cars catching them up quickly, Claire grabbed her gun and turned around in the seat,

"Spence cant you make this thing go faster?"

"It's a family car it's not made to go fast"

Max reached over and pulled Spencer's shotgun off the front seat,

"How many shells you got left?"

"Five in the gun, I've got three more here"

He put his paw in his jacket pocket and pulled them out, Max grabbed them out of his paw just as a burst of shots tore through the rear window missing him by a whisker. Claire ducked down as much as possible and fired back at the first car behind them, there was only twenty feet between them and the car's body wouldn't provide much cover for them from rifle fire. Max fired to shots and peppered the cars windscreen causing the driver to swerve out of the way and back off, but the second car came up quickly and bashed their rear bumper making the car bounce wildly. An agent leant out of the window with it's rifle but Max hit it in the arm with a shot making it drop it's rifle on the road, the first car came up along side on their left and Spencer picked his gun up from his lap and emptied it into the passengers side, blood sprayed against the window as he hit one of the agents in the neck. The car pulled in front of them but Spencer spotted an opening and slid the car onto a tight side alley barely wide enough car a single car making the first car completely overshoot, the second car however was still stuck with them, more rifle shots peppered the back of the car and Max got hit in the side as a round tore through the empty trunk of the car, he slapped around the wound as his shirt smouldered, Claire's eyes were wide,

"Incendiary rounds"

Through grit teeth Max sarcastically grunted

"I hadn't noticed"

He and Claire fired a volley of shots focusing on the drivers window, it shattered and the driver slumped dead over the wheel, the front passenger grabbed at the wheel but the car hit a rut and jammed into a buildings rear access door making it stop so hard that a rear passenger got catapulted through the missing windscreen into a bloody mess on the floor. Spencer could see the alley open up onto a main road and another alley was straight across from them, there were no other cars crossing his path so he gunned it, but as he got onto the main road the first agency car had gone around the block and smashed into the side of the rear of the car sending both cars spinning out of control. Spencer tried to correct the spin but there's was nothing he could do, the car slammed side on into a street lamp with enough force to bend the car to look like a boomerang, the impact deployed the airbag pinning Spencer in place, Claire got flung into the door knocking the wind from her and making her head spin. Her vision was going in and out and every part of her was in pain, she could hear Spencer groaning but she couldn't see Max and the door that he had been next to was missing. Struggling against the pain she crawled across the back seats and looked out onto the street, the car that had hit them was on it's roof about thirty feet away, it had clipped a concrete bench as it spun causing it to flip and slide on it's roof until it collided with a parked car, but it was what was between them in the middle of the road that caught her attention. Max was lying face first on the ground, he had been ejected from the car and a smear of blood on the tarmac showed he had slid across the ground. She sat unable to think straight until she heard him groaning, he pulled himself up onto his paws and knees, coughing hard he spat out a mouthful of blood before sitting up on his knees, she could see his lower jaw was twisted off to the side and as he looked over to look at her as she called his name she could see the right side of his face had been skinned across the floor, he grabbed his jaw and snapped it back in place with a sickening crunch. A couple of feet away was the shotgun he had taken off Spencer, he crawled over to it and used it as a crutch to get up before stumbling towards the car on it's roof. On of the agents was still conscious and he was trying desperately to get his seatbelt off with one paw as the other was trapped in the twisted metal. Just as he managed to release the catch the window was smashed with the butt of Max's shotgun and he dragged the agent out by the collar, he dropped the agent on the ground and stomped on his chest as he went to draw a pistol from his combat rig, Max took the pistol and tucked it into his waistband then grabbed a road flare from the agents kit, he hit it against the car to light it before throwing it inside, it took only a moment before it ignited the leaking fuel and the car burst into flames. Max pulled the balaclava off the agent to reveal a lion who looked absolutely terrified, half of Max's face had been ground to the bone and he was still going strong.

"You're a monster"

"I've only just started"

He knelt on the agents chest and flicked his claws out, he was going to slash the agent but paused when he felt a paw on his back, Claire had walked over and was stood next to him, the lion couldn't tell which of the two was more angry. Max retracted his claws and got up off the lion but kept the shotgun ready, Claire looked straight into the lions eyes and he gulped at the coldness in her eyes,

"Tell me where I can find Church or I'll let Max go to work on you"

"I don't know where he is"

"You're awfully loyal to a traitor, your friends are burning behind you do you want to join them?"

"I swear to you I don't know where he is, the only one who knows where he is is Captain Tyler"

"Then where can I find Tyler?"

"He operates from a mobile command centre that's always on the move, he calls us on the radio when we're to come in"

The lion moved his paw to his rig but quickly shot it back as Max put the shotgun barrel to his head, Claire opened a pouch on the rig and took out a radio similar to the ones that the ZBI used but it was more sophisticated. Claire hooked the radio onto her shoulder holster and checked it was still working, satisfied she walked off towards the car Spencer was still in, the lion started panicking and yelled after her,

"Hey! You're going to let me go right?!"

"That's up to Max, I'm not controlling him"

The lion was shaking with terror as Max raised the gun, but instead of shooting him he smacked him across the head with it knocking him out. He dropped the shotgun and took the lion assault rifle before heading over to the others, Spencer had popped the airbag and Claire was helping force the buckled door open so he could get out, he was a little shaky but he looked alright other than a few cuts and bruises. Claire looked at Max as he helped Spencer regain his balance, he looked like he had been put in a blender with all the injuries he had,

"You going to be alright?"

"It's going to hurt for a while but I'll live, I've had worse injuries"

"You didn't kill him then"

"He's just a soldier following orders, Church is who I want"

"You'll have to get in line"

Spencer leant against the car and rubbed his sore wrists that had been twisted by the crash,

"So what now?"

"I have an idea, there's someone I know we can trust, someone who'll be happy to put Church in his place"

"Who?"

"A close friend, think you can get us another car Spence?"

"Yeah, no problem"

He hot wired another car and the three of them headed off through the side streets away from prying eyes.


	16. Chapter 16

Spencer pulled the beat up old camper van that he had hot wired into the lane leading behind the set of detached houses that Claire had given him directions to, after driving for a few more meters he parked the van under a large willow tree that helped obscure it from view, the van stuck out like a sore thumb in this section of the rainforest district as many of the houses were expensive and had posh cars parked on their drives where as the van's paintwork was peeling and there was rust all over it. Claire undid her belt and turned to the guys,

"Wait here, I don't want the neighbours calling the cops after seeing a group here"

Spencer had a clear view from the drivers seat as she got out and headed through the back gate into the garden, the garden was long and full of flowers and at the end of it was a set of French sliding doors but he couldn't see inside due to the glare from the sun as it was starting to set. Max checked the rifle over again, he had done it several times during the trip here and Spencer had a quick look over his shoulder at him,

"How many times you going to do that?"

"Sorry, bad habit"

"Nervous?"

"No, you?"

"Of course I am. Every agency in the cities after us, we have little ammunition, we're all injured and I have no idea who it is we're supposed to be visiting cause Claire wont tell us"

"It could be worse"

"How the hell could it be worse?"

Max just stared at him, Spencer slowly turned around and put his head against the rest,

"Right, second bomb"

A few minutes went by and a quick set of flashes came from the French doors, Spencer undid his belt and looked at Max in the mirror,

"That's the signal, lets go"

Spencer got out and headed straight over with Max a few steps behind him, the assault rifle hidden as best he could under his jacket. They closed the garden gate behind them and went up to a second door further along the house where Claire was waiting, as soon as they were in she closed the door and slid a bolt across before drawing the blind on it. The house was in impeccable condition and looked like it was taken care of every day by the owner, it was well furnished with wooden furniture that matched with the districts trees, a cream coloured carpet felt nice under foot after what they had been through and they felt like they could almost forget their troubles as they smelt food being cooked. Claire lead them into the kitchen/dinner where a female arctic fox was taking a tray of what looked like lasagne out of the oven, she put it on a mat on the counter before taking off her oven mitts and apron, Claire gestured towards her,

"Guys this is Skye, Jacks wife and a former agent with the ZBI. Skye this is Spencer and Max who I'm sure you know"

"Yes Jack did mention him"

She held out her paw and Spencer shook it followed by Max,

"You look familiar Spencer, have we met?"

"Yes Ma'am, you were my instructor at the academy six years ago"

"I don't think I ever trained you for a situation like this. How bad is it out there Claire?"

"Really bad, we haven't been able to get hold of Jack and we've already had a strike team come after us"

"You all look like you've been through the ringer, you two get some food in you, Claire can you come with me please"

Max put the rifle on the table and the two of them helped themselves to some of the lasagne, it was difficult and extremely painful for Max to eat with his facial injury but he knew he needed to keep his energy up in order to start healing properly. Skye lead Claire upstairs to what looked like an old office with a desk, chair and a couple of filling cabinets. Sky pulled one of the cabinets open and pressed a switch inside, there was a loud click and the bottom draws of all the cabinets slid open, inside were guns and ammunition as well as a black backpack, she took the backpack out and gave it to Claire.

"Jack and I always plan for the worst, we had a bug out bag made for you in case your place was ever unsuitable to return to, there's a fresh suit inside as well as other items"

"Skye...Thank you"

"You can use the shower in the master bedroom to freshen up, I'll make sure you aren't disturbed and I'll make arrangements with someone I trust. Don't worry, it'll work out""

Claire took the bag and went into Skye and Jacks bedroom, there were photos of the two at parties and on their wedding day on a dresser in the room, they both looked really happy and she hopped that they could get out of this in one piece. After getting out of her blood stained tracksuit and checking the water was the right temperature she got in. As she let the water soak into her fur she felt her arm trembling, and as the events of the day ran through her head she couldn't help but cry as she sank to the floor, the adrenaline finally having worked it's way out of her system.

* * *

Half an hour later Claire walked downstairs in her fresh suit with her jacket under her arm, she could hear the TV on in the living room and she looked through to see Spencer and Skye who was now in her old agency suit watching the news for updates, she couldn't see the TV properly from where she was but she heard the reporter updating the casualties, two hundred were now dead and the number of injured had reached seven hundred. She headed into the kitchen/dinner and stood next to the table was Max, he was working his way through a huge stack of weapons and other equipment that the savages had built up over the years, he was deciding what he would take. She walked over and stood next to Max and she picked up a high power revolver and flicked it open, Max took it out of her paw and gave her a strange looking automatic pistol with a handle sticking out of the frame,

"You can cock that one with one paw, just pull the handle against the grip"

She tried it out, and although it was difficult as she wasn't use to it, it felt easier than trying to reload it the way she had in the apartment complex. She put it on the table in front of her and looked at him, she put her paw under his chin gently and turned his face to her, the wound on his face had already started to heal, fresh skin was growing but it was still a long way off.

"He wasn't kidding, you really do heal fast"

He pulled his head away and carried on loading a rifle magazine with a box of bullets,

"Max?"

"I'm fine"

"I've seen that look before, things will be OK, we just need to find Church"

"And then what?"

"What do you mean?"

"Look around you Claire, the cities gone to shit because of me and Sokolov"

"Hey, don't give me that it was Church who started this"

"No it wasn't, he may have triggered this but it was mine and Sokolov's arrival that set everything off. We're a danger to everyone"

"You've kept us alive, I would have been dead back at the morgue if you hadn't stepped in, and lest not forget the Tillserson building yesterday. Without you we wouldn't have stood a chance, I wouldn't have stood a chance"

"You wouldn't have even been in that situation if we weren't here to begin with!"

His sharp rise in his voice caused her to take a step back, he put his paw on his face and dragged it down as he exhaled loudly,

"Look, we're a danger to you, to this world, we aren't meant to be here. As soon as I can figure out how I'm taking Sokolov and heading back to my world"

"You don't need to, you can stay here, you said it yourself your world is worse than here"

"It is, far worse, but Church isn't going to be the last one to come after me, I'm a freak remember, your governments backing him, how long till someone else takes over from him"

"Max..."

"I've made my decision, that's it"

Claire's face had dropped, she didn't know what to say when she heard someone clearing their throat from behind her, she turned to see Skye stood by the rooms door with one paw in her pocket and the other moving between her and Max,

"You two mind keeping it down, my neighbours are likely to call the cops if they hear you"

"Sorry"

"See anything you like?"

"umm, a couple of things"

"Well we can take whatever we can carry"

"We?"

"My husband is in danger Claire, don't expect me to stay on the sidelines for this one"

"Be glad of the extra help. What's between you and Church, you couldn't get me in the house fast enough when I mentioned he was after us"

"He and I have clashed in the past"

"How bad was it?"

"I was forced to take early retirement, lets leave it at that"

She walked over and picked up a full magazine that Max had stacked on the table, it was the one that had been in the rifle when he had picked it up off the agent, her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the round at the top,

"Why is he using these?"

"Using what?"

"These are armour piercing incendiaries, you don't use those against soft targets"

Max put his paw over the top of it and she let him take it from her,

"Normal rounds wont kill me, he needs these"

Spencer, who had walked in shortly after Skye said

"But his orders were to arrest you, that's what everyone was told over the radio"

Skye shook her head and looked over to Spencer,

"Church doesn't play by anybodies rulebook but his own. Once he has the go ahead for an operation he runs things his way, and he plays hard. We can expect all of his agents to try and kill us"

"What about the ZPD?"

"I don't know, depends on who we run across I suppose. If the only they had was to arrest you then there is a good chance we can avoid them, but just to be on the safe side presume the worst"

"So what do we do now?"

"We wait"

"We can't sit here forever"

"I understand your eagerness Claire, but going off half cocked will only get you killed. For now we wait for my friend to call back with a plan"

"plan..."

She put her paw into her pants pocket, took out the USB pen drive and held it open in her paw,

"Sokolov said we would need this"

"why is a terrorist helping you go against Church?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

"I'd watch that if I were you Claire, it can be a double edged sword"

Skye took it from her and went into the living room, the TV was still on and the news was showing an interviewer sat in a studio with a number of other mammals who were discussing the attack, who was likely to be responsible as well as the emergency service response and the impact this would probably have on the city. Skye went to a desktop computer on a mahogany desk at the other end of the room and sat down at it, she wiggled the mouse to bring it out of hibernation and plugged the pen drive in. All that was on the drive was a single text document that she opened, but it was illegible, she had been all over the world while being an active agent and she hadn't seen anything like this before.

"I cant read this"

Claire looked over her shoulder

"Is it corrupted?"

"I don't think so"

Spencer took a look as well

"Doesn't look like any computer code I've seen before either"

"That's cause it's meant for me"

"You can read it Max?"

"It's a code used by Seekers, only my order is taught it"

"So what does it say"

"It's GPS coordinates for a dead drop"

He took a piece of paper and a pencil from the desk and scribbled down a string of numbers and handed it to Skye,

"Where is this?"

Using some software on the computer she traced the coordinates to the parking lot of the Lions Gate open air train station in the southern coastline of Savanna Central. Spencer rubbed his chin and asked,

"A train station? Isn't that dangerous for us?"

Skye sat back and folded her arms as she looked over at him,

"It could play into our paws, being amongst a large group makes it harder for an individual to be spotted, tradecraft 101"

"All the stations have been closed, the ZPD wont open them until tomorrow at the earliest"

"According to the news there's a lot of mammals who aren't able to get back to their homes because of the security cordons, they're camping in parking lots across the city including those at train stations"

A buzzing sound coming from the coffee table got their attention and Skye jumped out of her seat and ran to the source, a complex portable radio was vibrating and the screen was flashing. She picked it up and put it to her ear for a moment before pressing a button and putting it on the table,

"You're on loudspeaker Joey"

"Is everyone there?"

"Yes everyone's present"

"Good, Claire I know you recognise my voice as for the others let me introduce myself, I'm the national director of the MBI Joey Samuels"

"Sir, how come you're calling us?"

"Because Claire unlike the majority of policy makers in the capital I don't trust Church. There are a few here who share my view but not enough to have Church's authority overruled, not without proof"

"About that sir, we have intell from a...semi-reliable source, we're going to be checking it out ASAP"

"What source?"

Claire looked apprehensive and Skye nodded at her to say the truth,

"Sokolov sir"

"The source is Sokolov?...Well, it's not the worst I've heard before but it comes close. Look I'm gathering together as many agents as I can that I can trust one hundred percent and we're coming to Zootopia, we'll be there in about ten hours, you have till then to get me the evidence I need"

"What if we can't get it sir?"

"I hope for your sake, and for the sake of the other S12 agents that you do, Samuels out"

The radio went dead and Claire let out a heavy sigh,

"No pressure then guys"

Sensing that Skye wanted a word with Claire Max put his paw on Spencer's shoulder, and when he looked at him he nodded over to the door to the hall, Spencer followed Max out of the room and he closed the door behind them.

"Claire, one thing you will have to learn with the position you will hold once this is over is to never be afraid with Joey, he's an imposing mammal because he has to be, but if he asks you for your source or other information know that he isn't going to punish you, he cares a lot about his staff and he can only have our backs if he knows what we are up to, the same way you will need to be with your staff when you become director"

"What about Jack? I'm not sure I'm ready to take over anyway"

"Nobody ever is, as for Jack I don't think he's coming out of this in one piece. You know how bad his condition is, with everything that's going on I can't see him coming back" Skye put her arm gently on Claire's "You need to prepare yourself the best you can, same as I have"

She let go of her and headed out of the room to join the others leaving Claire alone with her thoughts for a bit. In the kitchen/dinner Skye walked over to the table where Max and Spencer were stood and started loading gear into a large duffel bag,

"Best take everything you can carry, once this starts I doubt we'll have a chance to come back for anything"

* * *

AN -Just a short one this time, more coming soon.


	17. Chapter 17

The four of them had gathered all the gear and weapons that they could fit into two duffel bags and loaded them into the trunk of Skye's car that was parked in her garage, she had a large five seat off-road vehicle that was big enough for Max and Claire to sit in without feeling like sardines in a can. With everything set Skye handed Spencer the keys and they headed off. Driving through the cities streets felt strange, they past by a number of areas that would usually be busy with mammals enjoying their evenings going to restaurants or outdoor events or just relaxing in the districts climate, yet the streets were almost deserted. The ZPD had issued a statement advising residence across the city to remain indoors while they conducted their initial investigation, advice that seems to have been taken to heart by the majority of citizens in the Rainforest district at least. With Downtown virtually sealed off they were forced to take the long way round and they followed the cities Loop line that went through most of the districts, it added more time than they wanted to their journey but it allowed them to bypass security checkpoints that had been set up to try to help reassure citizens that the authorities were doing everything in their power to keep them safe. So far no news of them had been issued to the press, so they didn't have to worry about the public getting involved with the search for them, but they knew that the longer the search for them went on the higher the likely hood that this would change, and with Joey arriving in around nine hours time with whatever force he had managed to arrange they had little time to get things done. After a forty minute drive they finally arrived at Lions Gate station, it was a large building constructed with a white stone that helped it to stand out amongst the other buildings in the area even as the moon was rising, it's Greek pillar architecture made it appear old but it had only been around for thirty years, it's architect had won prizes for it's design and it was a key landmark for tours in the area, it usually saw hundreds of passengers an hour passing through it's terminal but now it's large platforms and halls were empty due to the crisis. It's parking lot was bristling with mammals who had been stranded with no other means to get back home other than to pay a fortune in taxi fare or to wait and hope that the stations reopened soon, many of the cars that were parked here were from mammals who had travelled to other parts of the city and who had only used the car as part of their morning commutes and so they were stranded elsewhere as well, many of those that were able to get to their cars had helped the other mammals who had been stranded with shelter. A fast food truck had arrived and was handing out free food to the stranded and someone from a local homeless shelter had brought blankets and a large cart with a coffee maker in it, some mammals had even broken out a music player and they were all trying to make the best of it, showing that even though what was happening in the city was horrible it wouldn't break their spirit. Spencer pulled the offroader into an empty space away from the gathering that had formed around the fast food truck and he turned the engine off,

"Well I got us here, any idea what we're looking for?"

Sky had a mobile GPS tracker in her paw and was looking at it intently,

"Those coordinates lead to the parking lot, but not to a specific point"

Claire looked around the lot, there were still around a hundred and fifty cars parked here

"We can't search every car we'll be here all night, let alone stand out to everyone"

Skye opened the glove box and put the locator away,

"None of you will be getting it anyway, your injuries make you stick out like a sore thumb"

Spencer stared out the window at the truck, although he had eaten his fill the smell of grilled crickets was making him hungry again,

"Makes sense, but that still doesn't tell us which one we're looking for"

"That one"

From the rear passenger seat behind Spencer Max pointed to a green landrover parked halfway across the lot from them, Skye looked at it and couldn't see anything unusual about it,

"How do you know?"

"It's had the orb in it"

"You sure?"

Claire who was sat next to him studied his face, he was staring intently at the landrover and had the look in his eye that he had when he was tracking from the morgue.

"He's sure"

"Alright, hopefully he's left some keys for us"

"Try under the drivers wheel well, it's where he used to store items when he trained us"

"will do, keep an eye out for me, beep the horn if you see anything"

Skye opened the door and closed it as quietly as she could so as not to draw any attention to them, acting as casually as she did when being an active agent she moved between the cars, slowly making her way towards the green landrover. As she moved between them the others kept a watch, Spencer was watching the crowd surrounding the truck, Claire was watching Skye and Max was scanning the building, his paws keeping a firm grip on the assault rifle he had taken from the lion earlier in the day. Reaching the car Skye went up to the front wheel well and started running her paw around the inside of it, she was short enough that she didn't have to duck too much to hide behind the car parked next to it but she was still keeping an eye out, if anyone saw her then they would be in a lot of trouble. Feeling something bumpy against the body of the car she grabbed hold of it and gave it a pull, there was a bit of resistance but after a few seconds there was a quiet ripping sound and it broke free, pulling her paw out she could see that she had grabbed a box similar to a ring box that was covered in tape. She quickly undid it and opened it, inside was a flick key that she took out and opened up. She made sure noone was looking before jumping up and grabbing hold of the drivers door handle so that she could unlock it without using the remote and setting off the beeper that these models came with. Within just a few seconds she had unlocked it, opened the door and was inside. The interior was a mess, whatever had happened at the warehouse had shaken the vehicles insides about, the glove box was open and it's contents had been spilled all over the floor. She started digging through the heap of papers on the floor and eventually found a long hard card tube with a permanent marker with _To Max with regards, Sokolov_ paw written on it. She grabbed it and popped the plastic lid off the end and pulled out the contents, what she saw made her jaw drop and she quickly packaged it back up. From where she was sat Claire could see her stop and stare at something papery and colourful,

"She's found something"

"She better make it quick, looks like the trucks serving it's last customers, they'll be on the move soon"

"She's coming back"

Skye hopped out of the landrover with the tube under her arm, it was almost as tall as she was and it was awkward to move amongst the cars which slowed her progress. She was about halfway back when there was a puff of white erupted from Skye's side and she stumbled into the car in front of her and fell to the ground as she yelped loudly, a screeching of tires came from the parking lot entrance and a black car slid to a stop blocking it off.

"Ambush!"

Max threw his door open and was out with his assault rifle raised at the car before the others had even opened their doors properly, as the doors of the black car opened and ISB agents started getting out Max began emptying his magazine into them, forcing them to take cover behind the car, blood sprayed from the front passenger and it fell to the floor before it could get behind anything. The civilians who were stood around the truck started panicking and looking for anywhere to hide as bullets zoomed past them as the agents returned fire at Max who was using the body of the car to protect him, several shots punctured the metal skin but luckily they missed him by only a few inches. Claire had dashed out of her side and was running between cars as Spencer pulled out an SMG and joined Max in the fire fight. Claire crouched down looking for Skye, seeing her on all fours holding her stomach with one paw next to the hood of a sporty two door she quickly scurried over and put her arm around her,

"You alright, where were you hit?"

Skye gasped for breath,

"The vest caught it, fucking knocked the wind out of me"

Skye tried to get up but her legs felt tingly and she couldn't put any weight on them,

"Take the drop"

"What?"

"I can't walk, get out of here"

"Shut up and hold on to it I'll carry you"

With the tube held tightly in her paws Skye felt herself be picked up under Claire's arm, as Claire went to head back to the car the sound of footsteps from behind her made her turn around, another three agents had come out of the station while they were distracted with the car group and one of them was so close they could see the whites of his eyes under his balaclava, he had a shotgun in paw and had the two of them point blank in his sights, Claire felt her heart stop for a moment as she saw his finger pulling the trigger, but before the shotgun blasted them the agents head burst like a melon and he fell into the car he was stood next to. Walking towards them as he fired at the agents was Max, Spencer was keeping the group from the car busy with his SMG as Max slammed a new Magazine into his gun and stood between Claire and the agents from the station as he continued to fire on them, his shots shattered windows and burst tires as he kept the agents heads down as Claire moved Skye and the drop back to the offroader. Max kept checking over his shoulder as he walked backwards as they moved closer to Spencer, when he saw Claire bundling Skye into the back of the car he yelled to Spencer,

"Get her running I'll cover you!"

Spencer lobbed the SMG into the front passenger seat and turned the key, the offroader roared into life, he slipped it into reverse and wheel span out of the parking spot, turning the car so that the rear was pointing to the agents, metal and plastic from the lights pinged off in every direction as they sprayed the rear full of bullets. Max fired from his cover behind a large car that was probably for a giraffe and hit the agent who was using the hood of the car to steady his rifle in the shoulder knocking him back and making him drop the rifle. Spencer yelled out at the top of his voice,

"Max get in!"

Max looked at them, Spencer could see confliction in his face, he looked like part of him wanted to stay and fight while the rest wanted to leave. Max turned and fired four more shots into the hood of the agents car before running around to the passenger side and diving into the front seat, Spencer waisted no time and gunned it forward at a mesh fence. The offroader hit it at speed and it shook violently as it tore through it and bounced down the steep downhill slope that lead onto the main road thirty feet bellow, the offroader hit the road with considerable force and Spencer lost control of it for a moment, it slid sideways into the concrete divider and threatened to tip over as it went on two wheels before wobbling and correcting itself as all it's wheels slammed into the ground as they sped of down the road. The three remaining agents dove into their car only to find that the last shots from Max had smashed through the engine block rendering the vehicle useless.

* * *

Jack was lying wrapped up in a blanket on a large chair, sat next to him was Darell in the dark control room of the S12 HQ, a chemlight glowstick was all that illuminated the desk and lifeless computer in front of them. Jack was rapidly getting worse, his speech was beginning to slur and his left arm was shaking uncontrollably, the look on his face was of severe discomfort and every now and then his face would scrunch up as a sharp pain tore through his body. Darell had never seen him like this before, it was known amongst the section heads that Jack was suffering from a rare genetic disorder and that it was being kept at bay by an experimental treatment, but he had no idea how bad it would get and seeing the usually tough and energetic rabbit reduced to this state in such a short time was disturbing to say the least. They had searched his office and the facilities infirmary for any stock of his medication or anything that could act as a replacement but they found nothing, all he could do was talk to him to try and take his mind off it but even that didn't seem to do much. For the past two hours there had been an almost rhythmical banging on the blast door from the outside, someone was trying to break through the door and Jack knew who they were, or who they worked for at least, he had stationed the few members of the security team who had been inside when the lock-down was triggered inside the entrance corridor and they had laid explosive trip mines next to the door in case their uninvited guests managed to get through. Darell had run out of things to talk about and the two were sat quietly, many of the other staff had gone to the canteen where most of the supplies had been gathered and they were waiting for something to happen. A low rumble echoed through the corridors followed by a wiring noise that steadily increased in pitch, the lights flickered one, twice, then fully kicked in to life followed moments later by a series of rapid beeping as the computers all booted up one by one. A huge smile spread across Darell's face and he put his paw on Jacks shoulder,

"She got it to work Jack, now we can get something done"

"We can't lift the lock-down"

"Why not?"

"If we do then our guests will kill everyone in here, we're the nerve centre of this organisation, everyone here's a target"

"So what do we do?"

"Backup all the information we have onto external drives, we need to ensure they don't get their paws on it"

Darell entwined his fingers and clicked them before plugging an external hard-drive into the computer and began typing.

* * *

Spencer kept his foot down on the gas as he drifted the large heavy offroader around a corner into one of the rougher areas of Savannah Central, they had been driving at speed for the last ten minutes and the station was a long way from them now. Max pointed to an old stone footbridge next to a tower block that had lots of unkempt trees growing around it,

"That looks like a good spot, choppers wont see us and it doesn't look like anyone's around"

"Good call"

Spencer slowed the offroader down and rolled to a gentle stop under the bridge, he knocked the headlights off but kept the engine running so they could get out at a moments notice. Max and Spencer turned around in their seats to see what Skye had got from the dead drop. Claire was holding the tube with her knees as she popped the lid off, Skye was leaning against the door with her hand over her stomach and kept quiet as Claire pulled out the rolled up paper out of the tube. Max took it from her an unravelled it, it was a map of the city with several locations that had paw written notes on them,

"Oh my god, this is a map of the tunnel networks under the city, and it has targets listed on it"

"Bingo, inside information"

"Can we link it to Church though? It doesn't mean much to us if we cant put his finger on it"

"There's two sets of writing, think one might be Churches?"

"There's no way we can get him to submit a sample for testing against it, and good luck getting any documents from him"

Claire sat back in the seat and sighed as she tried to think, even though the tunnels bellow the city were classified it could still have come from anyone in Churches organisation that had access, they needed undeniable evidence.

"God dammit"

She kicked the tube against Max's chair, the sound of something clunking inside caught everyone's attention and they stared at it for a few seconds before Spencer picked it up and tipped it over Claire's open paw, a small clear plastic case with a micro SD card inside fell out onto her palm. Max took the case and plugged the SD card into his phone, an audio file was inside, he turned the volume up on his phone and played it.

There was some crackling and the sound of cloth moving over a microphone for a few seconds, the sound of someone knocking on a door was followed by footsteps approaching, a muffled male voice started talking,

" _Ah Chris, how nice of you to come by"_

"That's definitely Sokolov"

" _I's that a present for me? You shouldn't have, playing Hyde has worked out quite well, he bought the story about drug production hook line and sinker, now I'll have supplies and some unwitting test subjects. Now all I need is a nice target"_

" _That's why I'm here"_

Claire's eyes lit up,

"That's Church, no doubt about it"

Max paused the file for a moment,

"How'd you know?"

"When you first arrived an emergency meeting was held to decide what was to be done, Jack had me monitor the meeting and Church was one of the mammals who attended, I'd recognise his voice anywhere"

Max continued to play the file,

" _This here is a map of the disused tunnel network below the city, there are public events coming up in the next week, your best bet is to strike one of the three locations I marked on there for you, times are on there as well"_

" _You've certainly done your homework"_

" _It pays to be several steps ahead of the game, once you've finished your planning burn the map, I don't want anything finding it's way back to me"_

" _Don't worry about that"_

"That's exactly what we need"

"I need to call Joey"

Claire pulled out the encrypted radio and called the frequency that Joey had been using before, the radio beeped a few times as it tried to establish a connection, it took a minute but it did connect in the end, a high whining noise could be heard in the background and his voice sounded distorted,

"Director Samuels"

"Sir it's Schwartzpelz"

"Claire? What have you got?"

"We found a map and an audio recording at the dead drop, they both point to Church helping Sokolov and planning the attack"

"How certain are you?"

"Hundred percent sir"

"Excellent. We're in the air and en route to the city now with ninety agents, we'll be arriving around 03:00 and will be landing near city hall, can you meet us there?"

"We'll try sir, we encountered a second strike team at the dead drop, they were waiting for us"

"How's that possible, there's only four of you there's no way they could have known"

"I don't know sir, they may have been watching the drop, could be coincidence"

"I don't believe in coincidence Claire, watch your backs and stay safe"

"Will do sir"

She ended the call and put the radio away, they rolled up the map and put it back in it's protective tube. Spencer turned around in his seat and looked out the window,

"Well now what do we do, it's six hours till they show up"

"We stay on the move, if what Joey said was right and they can somehow track us then staying put is a bad idea, what do you think Skye?"

Skye had her head against the window and she was staring out at the tree's as they gently swayed in the steady breeze.

"Skye?"

Claire put her paw on Skye's shoulder, Skye tensed up instantly and her face scrunched up in pain, the skin around her eyes was greying and her breathing was trembling as Claire moved closer and gently pulled her paw away from her stomach, thick dark blood was oozing out from under her bullet proof jacket and it was all over her paw,

"Oh hell Skye's been hit"

Spencer quickly got into the back and helped Claire move Skye so that she was laying across the back seat as Max went into the trunk and pulled out a first aid kit. Spencer undid the velcro straps on the jacket and opened it up, there was a large cavity in the right side of Skye's stomach and he held his paws firmly over it to stop the bleeding as Max unlocked the latch on the first aid box and started digging through it. He pulled out a vacuum sealed bag, tore it open and pulled out a large antiseptic cloth with a bandage attached to it, Spencer pulled his paws away and Max put the pad over the wound making Skye groan in pain, he wrapped the bandage around her waist and tied it tightly,

"We need to get her to a hospital"

Skye shook her head before weekly saying,

"You can't, Church will have every hospital under surveillance. You'll get caught"

Claire took hold of Skye's paw,

"You're badly injured Skye, if we don't get you help"

"I know. I'm not scared of death Claire it happens to everyone in the end"

Spencer climbed back into the drivers seat and pulled the offroader back onto the road and started driving through the streets further into the run down neighbourhood, Max popped his head between the front seats and looked at him,

"Where we going Spence?"

"I know a doctor of sorts who lives nearby, she owes me a favour"

"What kind of doctor?"

"Used to be a surgeon for Tundratown General but she was fired after being caught sampling the medicines, she knows her stuff"

"How close is she?"

"Ten minutes away"

He tapped Spencer on the shoulder as to say well done and he helped Claire make Skye comfortable for the journey.

* * *

In the S12 HQ everyone except for the security team had gathered in the control room at Jack's request, the female red fox who had fixed the power was rubbing her oil covered paws in a cloth at the front of the group. Darell was typing away on a computer as everyone was watching the large monitor at the front of the room, it was showing the other side of the blast door where a group of mammals in tactical gear and assault weapons were waiting as another mammal in front of the group was using a thermal lance to cut through the door, and a call from the security team confirmed that the group was almost through the lock. Darell finished typing and pulled out the cable from the PC that connected to the external drive and he placed it into a open metal case that had other drives in it, he put a thick foam sheet over the top of them before closing and locking the case,

"That's everything Jack, it's all secured"

Jack was rocking back and forth in the the chair next to Darell, his skin was pale and his fur was matted from the profuse sweat that was pouring from him, he looked far older than he was and he struggled to talk.

"Wipe the.. server"

"Are you sure?"

"can't let... them have it"

Darell typed in a command and a request confirmation message appeared on the screen, he looked over to Jack who nodded to him. He pressed the Y key and a huge list of file names stared flashing up on the screen as the computer began systematically deleted everything on the server. Darell sat back and spoke quietly to Jack,

"Now what Jack? There's only four security team members, we can't hold them off for long"

Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a car key,

"Rear of server room...card reader behind the fifth tower"

Darell took it and turned it over in his paw, it was a crimson red card with a magnetic strip, there was nothing else marked on it,

"What's there?"

"Emergency escape...not on any map...follow the tunnel"

Darell picked up the case and handed it with the keycard to a hyena in a blue suit like his,

"Liam lead everyone down to the server room, get everyone out of here"

"What are you doing Darell?"

"I'll follow you shortly with Jack, go on"

The Hyena took the case and nodded at Darell, loudly he called out to everyone,

"You heard him people, everyone move to the server room we're getting out of here"

In an orderly manner everyone rather quietly headed to the connecting staircase that lead to the server room on one of the lower floors. When the last of the staff left Darell closed the door to the control room and sat back down next to Jack, he had a solemn look on his face and let out a sigh as he stared at the computer screen, it had almost finished deleting the servers files. Looking out the corner of his eye at Jack he calmly asked,

"I know what you're planning Jack, are you sure about this?"

"Yes"

"We can get you out of here and to a hospital, you don't have to do this"

"Look at me...It's too late...I've chosen"

Darell didn't say anything, he started typing in commands and accessed a hidden section of the facilities computer systems that only he and Jack knew about. After a few minutes he got up and pulled the keyboard off the desk, he carefully placed it on Jacks lap and stood back,

"It's all set up, just hit the enter key when you're sure"

"Thank you"

Darell saluted him,

"It's been an honour Jack"

He picked his radio up off the desk and headed to the corridor as he spoke into it,

"Security team withdraw to server room immediately"

In the silence he could hear the footsteps of the four security team members running to the stairwell that was about twenty feet from the control room door, as the sound grew fainter he watched the security monitors and hummed the rune from his wedding, the large assault force finally cut through the heavy blast door and two of the larger mammals pulled them aside as the rest of them poured through like a torrent. The first three mammals set off the trip mines and slowed the group down for just a few moments. He heard their claws clicking against the concrete floor as they got closer, as soon as the control room door opened he pressed the enter button. Darell had made sure that the security team was ahead of him before he went through the hidden entrance that had opened up behind the fifth large server tower, inside was a ladder that connected to a lower tunnel and he could see one of the team members stood waiting for him, as he passed through the door he hit a switch on the inside of the wall and the server began sliding back into place, he slid down the ladder and he ran with everyone else through the tunnel, less than a minute later there was a loud and dull thundering and the floor shook, a blast of dust poured down the ladder shaft as explosives hidden throughout the facility destroyed it.


	18. Chapter 18

Spencer squeezed the offroader down a narrow alley that opened up into a large storage area hidden between three neighbouring apartment complexes, he pulled the vehicle off to the side so it couldn't be seen from the road and he turned off the engine and lights. It was dark and this part of the buildings was unlit, but thankfully their night vision was enough in the little moonlight that fell between the buildings, Spencer got out and Max followed him, assault rifle in paw, he followed Spencer to a rusty metal door that was a couple of yards away as Claire cradled Skye who was very weak from blood loss the best she could in the back seat. Spencer hammered on the door with his fist several times and called out, as Max took up a position out of sight next to the door,

"Lemon open up!"

There was the sound of something clattering from inside and cursing, footsteps approached the door and a light could be seen through the small gap under the door. The sound of lots of locks turning was followed by the door creaking loudly as the door was wrenched open a few inches, a dazed and pissed off looking female badger in a dirty green tank top and military camouflage cargo pants was holding the door, a lit joint was in her free paw.

"The hell do you want Spence?"

"My friends been hurt badly, I need your help"

"So take em to the hospital"

"We cant"

"You can't? What did you do?"

"I don't have time to explain she's bleeding badly I need your help now"

The badger took a drag of the spliff and blew the smoke into his face

"No"

"The fuck do you mean no!"

"Just that, no. I'm not helping you"

"I stopped you going to jail after you got caught making meth with the hospital supplies, you owe me!"

"Christ you never let that go"

She stepped back and went to slam the door but Max stepped out of the shadow and grabbed it, Lemon was visibly shocked to see him, especially with the injury to his face and his bright yellow eyes. She started walking backwards and he grabbed her by the shoulder, he forced her back and she toppled over backwards onto an empty table, her eyes were wide and she had her arms crossed over her face to protect herself,

"Holly shit who the fuck are you!"

"He's asked for your help, now I'm telling you. You're going to help us"

"You cant threaten me, this is my home!"

"You're going to help us or I'll kill you in your home!"

Spencer ran over and put his arms between them and tried to push Max back,

"Max calm down we need her!"

Max gave her shoulder a firm push and stepped back,

"I'll go get them"

He turned and walked out of the door towards the car. Lemon was breathing rapidly and she stared at Spencer with wide eyes,

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into Spence?"

"It's serious and we're out of other options"

"I'll help you, but after this we're even"

"Deal"

Spencer held out his paw, lemon grabbed it and he pulled her up off the table, she looked around the floor and picked up her joint,

"You aren't going to keep smoking that are you? I need you focused"

"Too late Spence, I've been smoking all day"

They turned to see Max carrying Skye in both his arms as Claire followed and closed the door behind them. Claire couldn't help but turn her nose up at the place, it absolutely stank of weed and there were empty food cartons and liquor bottle everywhere, piles of clothes and couch bed with a TV next to it that was playing some crappy sci-fi movie, the TV was the only source of light bar for a poor quality bulb that had no real brightness to it and the wallpaper was peeling as damp permeated the walls. Lemon dumped the almost fully smoked joint into a full ashtray and walked over to check Skye, she pulled a pocket flashlight our of her cargo pants and forced Skye's half lidded eyes open and shone it across them a few times, she checked her pulse and gently pushed Max's paw away from her wound and she peeled the bandage back, her ears drooped and she sucked air between her teeth,

"Oh christ that's a bad bullet wound, follow me, I need to look at her properly"

She lead them to a huge Guns N' Rodents flag hanging from the wall and brushed it aside, behind it was a large room with whitewashed walls, bright overhead lighting and a surgery table in the middle of the room

"Put her on there"

She went over to a cabinet filled with vials of medicine, she opened it and took one before picking up a big medical kit and going over to the table. Max had gently placed Skye on the table and Claire was keeping her paw over her wound. Skye was semi conscious and was trying to lift her head up but all she could do was slowly roll it around against the cold metal table. Lemon put a doctors robe on over her clothes and a pair of latex gloves. She took a syringe out of the bag and drew some of the liquid from the vial, Skye rolled her head to face her and her eyes flickered as she tried to focus on Lemon who appeared as a fuzzy wavery image to her, Lemon looked at Spencer and quietly asked,

"What's her name?"

"Skye"

She turned to Skye and said louder so as to focus her attention,

"Skye can you hear me?"

"Wha...uh...yes..."

"I need to examine your injury. I can't give you a general anaesthetic, so all I can do is numb the pain with a local one, you may feel sick so if you do please say"

"uh.. eh...OK"

Lemon flicked the inside of Skye's arm a few times and injected the liquid into her. She put the syringe aside and kept a check on her pulse for a few minutes for the anaesthetic to kick in and to check she wasn't reacting strangely to it. She picked up a pin and poked it into the side of Skye's leg without her seeing it, when Skye didn't react Lemon was satisfied that it had taken affect and she got to work examining her. She carefully cut the bandage open and removed her shirt enough to look at the wound without discarding her decency. The wound was large for her size, it was bigger than a lime and it was jagged as if the flesh had been ripped out rather than cut. Everybody stood back and watched as Lemon took out item after item as she carefully and methodically worked on Skye. Slowly she recovered dozens of fragments and dropped them in a metal tray. after around forty five minutes Lemon walked over to a sink and washed the blood off her gloves before removing them and scrubbing her paws. As she dried them with a towel she gestured with her head for Spencer to follow her. The two of them went back to her living area, Claire sat next to Skye and held her paw and rubbed the back of it with her thumb. Max looked at Claire and Skye for a moment before following Spencer into the other room.. In the living area Lemon picked up an unlit joint from a pile she had next to her bed that she had made, she rubbed her chin with the back of her paw and lit the joint before taking a long drag and exhaling the smoke slowly. Spencer sat on the edge of the nearby table while Max leant against the wall, They both waited patiently, after a few moments she sat down on an old beaten up reclining chair and calmly stated,

"I can't help her"

"What? You said"

Lemon snapped at Spencer,

"I know what I said! The round that hit her fragmented when it went through her skin, there's a clean entry wound an inch from main injury but the larger one is extreme trauma, it's not been cut it's been shredded. Her injury is too substantial, her liver has been ripped to shreds and her kidney was punctured, she's lost too much blood. Her body has been without a sufficient amount for too long and it's starting to shut down, even a fully equipped ward would struggle to help her"

"So what do we do?"

"All we can do is make her comfortable. She'll be dead in a couple of hours with organ failure, assuming the stitching holds and she doesn't bleed out first. I'm sorry."

Spencer let out a long sigh,

"This isn't how it was supposed to go. Claire's going to be devastated, she's been close friends with Skye for years, how do I tell her?"

Max stood upright,

"I'll tell her. Thank you for trying Lemon"

"I may not be a Doctor officially any more but it swore an oath, I'm just sorry I cant do more"

Max pushed the flag aside and walked into the operating room, Claire was sat with a sad look on her face as she kept rubbing Skye's paw, Skye was incredibly pale and she seemed to be hallucinating as she mumbled incoherently to herself. Max walked over quietly and crouched down next to Claire, he whispered into her ear what Lemon had told him. Claire's jaw dropped as she just stared straight ahead, Max put his paw on her shoulder and her mouth trembled as it closed, she sniffed as tears ran down her face. The solemn silence was abruptly ended as a loud bang at the front door was quickly followed by Spencer shouting as he ran backwards into the room as he drew his pistol, Max spun around as he heard Spencer's yelling, he had taken his rifle off and leant it against the wall in the other room so he grabbed the handle of his pistol in it's holster and he was halfway through drawing it as several heavily armed ISB agents poured into the room as they yelled for them to drop their weapons. They were massively outnumbered and out gunned, Spencer let his pistol fall to hang by the finger guard and he raised his paws into the air, one of the agents took the gun from his paw as the others yelled at Max again to drop his gun, with no other rational option Max dropped it onto the floor and kicked it towards them, a separate agent walked over an pulled the pistol from Claire's holster and stood aside as Lemon was pushed through the entrance into the room with them, she had her paw over her nose and blood was seeping out from between her fingers from where one of the agents had hit her with the butt of his rifle. The agent pushed Lemon hard and she fell to the ground in front of Max who went to pick her up but and agent put a shotgun in his face so he stood up with an angry look on his face, Lemon pulled her paw away from her nose and gingerly touched it a few times before blowing a load a blood of of it,

"I knew I should have turned you away Spencer"

"Well that would have made things more difficult"

Lemon looked up from where she was lying towards the unfamiliar voice and saw a horse in military uniform with a black beret on his head and another folded in the epaulettes of his shirt enter the room, he had a bullet proof vest on and a holstered pistol on his hip but he had no insignia anywhere. Claire growled when she saw him,

"Church you fucking bastard!"

"Now that's not very nice Miss Schwartzpelz, and it's Major Neighland to you. You've given us a good run around, but it's over"

Max stepped between Church and Claire and stared at him as his lip curled up to bear his fangs as he snarled, Church didn't look at all afraid of him, in fact he laughed,

"You think that's going to scare me? I've seen a lot over the years Max, I don't scare easy"

He walked straight past him and stood next to Claire at the operating table and looked down at Skye, her eyes were flickering and he made a disgruntled sound,

"Such a disappointment, I was hoping for something from you Skye. One last fight maybe, after all your husband went out with a bang"

Anger flared up in both Max and Claire at his statement, Claire was grabbed by the agent that had taken her gun to stop her doing anything as she went to hit Church. Max flicked out his claws and was fully intent on slicing Church's throat before he heard a tell tale click next to his ear, he froze and was shocked to see Spencer step from his blind spot with a high power pistol in his paw aimed at Max's head, in their focus on Church neither Max nor Claire had noticed the agents letting Spencer move around and take a gun from one of their holsters. Max didn't move as he followed the gun with his eyes, Claire almost yelled at Spencer,

"Spence what the fuck are you doing!?"

"You know I really should have chosen a better name, seemed to go with the bumbling investigator though"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Church let out a roaring laugh and unhooked the beret from his epaulette before placing it on Spencer's head,

"Good to have you back Captain Taylor"

"Thank you sir, it's good to be back"

Claire was too shocked to say anything, Max was still stood stock still as he followed Spencer's every move with his eyes. Church had a huge victorious grin on his face as he looked at Claire,

"Oh now don't be so shocked Claire, Spencer or Tyler as he truly is has been one of our sleeper agents for years, even director Samuels realised something was up, _I don't believe in coincidences_ , remember?"

"But. The agent we questioned.."

"Said what we wanted you to know if one of them was caught, deception and misdirection is essential in battle"

Taylor put his free paw to his ear and pulled out a small strange shaped lump and held it up for her to see,

"Bone ear piece and mic, they heard everything that we were up to and relayed instructions to me, only person who could hear it was me"

"You see Claire I was hoping that your little group of fuck ups would led me to Sokolov, I didn't bank on you accepting his help though, so we played a little game hoping that he would reveal something about where to find him, unfortunately your acquiring of the dead drop made me act, cant have you giving it to Samuels now can I"

She backup up against the operating table as he took a step towards her,

"What are you going to do?"

"Well I think we'll keep Max, he can be useful as a test subject for finding out how to kill Sokolov. As for you, you know far too much"

He pulled his gun out of his holster, he had a cocky grin on his face and looked like her was about to ask something when a gunshot rang out, he dropped his gun and grabbed his leg as he fell over, Skye held a smoking gun in her paw, she knew that Claire kept a backup weapon in a concealed holster in the small of her back and when she had backed up against the table she had taken it out as the drugs that Lemon had given her were wearing out. Taylor spotted it and turned around, managing to get a single shot off that hit Skye in the chest, Max acted quickly and with his claws extended he slit his throat with one paw as he grabbed for the gun with the other. An agent raised his gun to fire on Max as blood sprayed from Taylor's throat, but he was shot in the upper chest by Lemon, Churches gun had fallen and bounced next to her as he dropped it. In an attempt to keep everyone focused on him Max dove at a large group of Agents and started slashing at anything that moved as he roared like a wild animal, he savagely tore chunks out of them with his free claws and teeth as he fired rounds from the high calibre pistol into others until it was empty. Claire grabbed he gun from Skye as fresh blood seeped from her chest, she fired point blank into the eye of an agent who's gun had jammed as he fired a burst towards Max but only ended up hitting his unit members in the chaos, he fell to the floor as the back of his head exploded outwards and she barged a second agent into the wall with her shoulder as she fired into his stomach, when he doubled over she slipped to the side and fired a shot into the side of his head before ducking behind the medicine cabinet as an agent fired a shotgun blast at her, the shot shattered the cabinets glass and smashed the various medicine vials inside. The agent moved closer as he fired another blast but he was cut down by Lemon who shot him through the vulnerable side plating of the jacket, the agent fell forward and landed almost next to Claire who quickly got out of cover and drew the agents sidearm before firing a hail of bullets at two other agents who had been guarding outside before hearing the eruption of death coming from inside, one of them was caught in the face and the second was tagged in the arm but it wasn't enough to stop him firing on Lemon who was in front of them and pointing an empty gun with the slide locked back at them, the agent fired a burst from his rifle into her chest and she fell back against the floor with her gun falling from her paws. He fired at Claire and a round went through her thigh dropping her to the floor, she looked up to see the laser sight on his rifle point into her eye, but it was suddenly moved away as Max charged into the Agent, grabbed him around the waist, lifted him up and slammed him onto the solid surgical table, he ruthlessly beat the agents face with his bloody fists before dragging him off the table and smashing his head repeatedly into the table until he could hear Claire yelling out his name, the red mist slowly began to evaporate and he let go of the agent who's head no resembled a water melon that had been hit with a hammer. The entire room was filled with dead bodies, blood was everywhere and the walls were riddled with bullet holes, the agents that Max had fought were reduced to bloody piles of meat and there was blood all over him and parts of their uniforms were hanging from hi teeth and claws. As he came back to his senses he retracted his claws and pulled the bits from his teeth, seeing Claire on the floor he dashed over to her, she was lying on the floor and holding her leg, he moved her paw and looked at the wound,

"It's clean through and through, hold still"

He took off his belt and tied it tight around her leg as a tourniquet,

"Agh fucking hell Max"

"Sorry, this'll hold for now but you need to have it looked at properly"

Claire looked around at the destruction and shook her head,

"How the hell are we still alive?"

"Luck?"

As she continued to look about she noticed something missing which made her sit as upright as she could with her injured leg,

"Where's Church?"

Max stood up and looked to where he had fallen, a thin trail of blood lead out into the living area, his lipped curled up again and he looked at Claire,

"Stay here"

He grabbed the shotgun from the agent who tried to kill Claire, he loaded shells into it from a rack on the butt and headed out into the living room. She crawled over to the operating table and struggled to pull herself up, she was met with a blank stare from the glazed eyes of Skye, the bullet wound over her heart was no longer bleeding an her chest was still. From the other room she heard the panicked voice of Church yell,

"No now wait a minute!"

Before a shotgun blast silenced it.

* * *

The grassy park between City Hall and ZPD Precinct One was busy, with the city being on full alert as the ZPD, lead by ISB liaison agents, increased the security surrounding government buildings. SWAT team members in full gear were patrolling the outside of both buildings as government officials in City Hall tried to take measures to reassure citizens and to make sure that the attack did as little damage as possible to how the city worked. In his office in Precinct One Bogo, who had now fully taken over as Police Commissioner, was reading through the latest situational reports, roaming firefights at an apartment complex, closed roadways, Lions Gate station and an explosion beneath a skyscraper in the downtown area had him pushed to the edge. His father was a war veteran and had told of some of the horrors he had seen in combat and he couldn't help but compare the two with what was in the reports, he also detested the fact that he had been ordered to detain any and all members of S12, he knew Jack personally and the mere suggestion that he was responsible in some way for the attack was utter nonsense, but he had no choice other than to follow his orders as they came down from way on high. Many S12 agents had been hurt by the ISBs brutality during the course of the arrests and he knew that some of them were being beaten in the Precincts cells, only ISB agents were allowed in there now under their commanders orders, he was desperately hoping that he could bring something against them once this had been sorted out. There was a knock on his door and his shoulder slumped, he hadn't had much peace since the incident happened and he was growing tired of the ISB agents pestering him, reluctantly he called out,

"Come in"

The door opened up and the ISB commander, a bison that was almost as tall as Bogo, walked in carrying a file, he was wearing a plain military uniform like the other liaison officers without any insignia or name tags, and none of them gave a real name, only a code name which made any hopes of Bogo being able to bring a case against them for their brutality dwindle to almost nothing. The bison sat down opposite him and put the file on the desk,

"We've identified ten more S12 suspects, here's their particulars, I want you to send teams out to bring them in, use whatever force you want I don't care"

Bogo took his glasses of and tossed them onto his desk in one motion,

"My men have been out there bringing in your _suspects_ all night, and not one of them has any idea as to why it is we are detaining them"

"Your point being?"

"I know you are up to something White, I will find out what"

"Really now. I don't think you realise what it is that we are, we keep the monsters at bay Commissioner, it's thanks to us making the hard decisions that keep the citizens of this country safe"

An unusual buzzing noise in the background went unnoticed by the two as Bogo started to let his mouth run,

"Bollocks! I can smell the rot coming from you, what you're doing to those detainees is unacceptable!"

"Cry me a river Bogo, you may not like what we do but we call the shots, so do as your told or we'll find someone who will"

"You can't threaten me"

"I'm not making a threat, I'm making a promise"

A loud clang and a commotion downstairs in the lobby area caught their attention and the two quickly headed out to the mezzanine balcony to see, coming through the doors were more than a dozen heavily armed mammals in black uniforms with a yellow shield patch on their shoulders, their assault rifles were raised and they were barking orders at ISB agents to get on the floor, the agents who were only armed with pistols quickly gave up and followed the groups orders. The loud engine of a low flying helicopter buzzed over the precinct and a loud speaker began playing,

"This is the MBI, all ISB agents are to surrender immediately, executive authority has been revoked, any who resist will be shot, this is your final warning, stand down and surrender immediately"

The bison clenched his hoofs around the metal railing before pushing himself back, he went to run to the staircase but Bogo dove at him and tackled him to the floor, the two of them swung blows at each other and Bogo knocked White's pistol away as he drew it, the door to the stairwell flung open and several of the MBI agents burst onto the mezzanine and ordered Bogo to stand down. Bogo got off of White and held his hoofs up as two the larger mammals rolled White roughly onto his front and tied his hoofs together with metal cable ties, they hauled him to his feet as a kangaroo in a black suit and long woollen coat walked in behind them, White, who had a thick lip and quickly on setting black eye from a couple of well placed punches spat out,

"What the hell is the meaning of this!"

"Commander White you are under arrest for your part in crimes against the state and terrorism"

"You cant do this! I have authority!"

"Your Authority has been rescinded under emergency action notice 259 signed by Secretary of Defence Dianne Gepard, as of right now all ISB operatives are wanted felons. Get rid of him"

* * *

A week later in one of the secure locations below the city where this had all began a meeting was being held, the heads of all the agencies involved in the events from the last three weeks were gathered, Joey was sat at the head of the large rectangular table in place of Mayor Lionheart, who was using his charismatic persona and was playing to a huge crowd of reporters and citizens outside the front of City Hall, he was congratulating everyone in the city for their bravery during the troubled time, the crowd was eating out of his paw and it looked like he was following things as they had been written for him by the group. Joey turned from looking at the TV that was showing the speech live and turned back to the meeting,

"As we agreed the events cannot be allowed to surface"

"All ISB agents have been arrested and the agency dissolved, we control all the information outlets and have wiped any external sources"

"What about those that have fallen?"

"They are being given full state funerals, the people can know they died protecting them even without knowing any details, it could also serve to help recruitment if spun correctly"

"The S12 agents, how are they doing?"

"They're recovering well, our visitor Max has made a full recovery already, whilst those who were caught in the blast are now conscious and doing well"

"How is agent Schwartzpelz?"

"Healing, she is getting used to using a prosthetic arm, it's advanced but still no substitute for the real thing"

"She wont be fit for field duty any more, and with Savage's death we've lost valuable assets"

"I wont be so sure, I motion that she takes over from him"

"What? She has no experience in politics"

"And that's why we need her there, she has the experience and the strength to keep the ZBI in order, and she was Jack's pick for his replacement"

There was a moment of silence in the room, the badger who had spoken out against Max and the ZBI in the initial meeting put his cigarette into his ashtray,

"All those in favour"

Slowly, one by one, every mammal in the room raised one of their paws,

"So it's unanimous, very well director, you have the councils blessing. I do want to know though how you managed to get a warrant for ISB arrests, from what I hear Madam secretary was the one who backed them in the first place"

"Agent Darell Scratch broadcast evidence to me on a secure network, it was enough to get the ball rolling officially, but it was Claire and Max's evidence against Church that sealed the deal"

"Well I'm glad they acted. We'll arrange for new facilities to be built, in the meantime we'll sort something out for your agents. Where are we with tracking Sokolov?"

"Right now it's on hold until we get back on our feet, if what he told Claire was true, and from what Max has indicated it could be, then we have just under 12 months before his next attack"

"We'll get things moving and have facilities up and running ASAP, whatever you need director just ask, we have a large pot to draw from"

* * *

In one of Saint Mary's hospital private recovery room Judy was lying on Nicks bed with him, he was in a Neck brace and was unhappy with the fact he had been ordered not to move as he had cracked a vertebrae when he was thrown against the tunnel wall and he was still heavily bandaged around his chest from the metal bar making him very uncomfortable. Judy was also bandaged, but thankfully to Nick her injuries were less severe as she had been in more cover when the blast had occurred. She was feeding him some blueberries that her parents had sent from their farm and it was greatly helping to raise his spirits, they also had been able to furtime their kids which had been a relief to them. They had just watched Lionheart's speech which had been received with cheers of jubilation when there was a knock on the door, Judy threw another blueberry into Nicks mouth and called for the person to enter. Claire and Max walked in and closed the door behind them, Claire was wearing a hospital tracksuit an was walking with a crutch as she was still recovering from her gunshot and Max was helping to steady her every now and then. She sat down on a fold out chair and blew out a mouthful of air,

"These things are harder to use than they look"

Judy chuckled as she turned around to look at them as she leant against Nick,

"You'll get used to it, you probably wont need it that long"

"Hopefully not"

"How are you finding the arm?"

She raised up her arm and pulled back the sleeve to show a 3D printed carbon prosthetic, it had been made in such a way that it looked like it had fur on it from a distance,

"They linked it to my nerves so I can move it like a real arm, I don't have fine motor control at the moment but the doctors are confident that I will with time"

Nick smiled as Judy tossed another blueberry into his mouth, he chomped it down before saying,

"It's a good start at least"

"I'll learn to live with it, I'm not giving up that easy"

They chuckled a bit before the room grew quiet, Judy sighed quietly and looked at Claire,

"I'm sorry about Jack and Skye"

"Me too, I know he didn't have much time left but I never thought it would happen like this"

"Knowing Jack he'd rather go out quickly"

"Yeah, still wish it was under better circumstances"

"When's the funeral?"

"One week, long enough for you guys to attend if you want"

"I'd like that"

Just then Max's phone started ringing, he picked it out and saw that it was an unknown number, he didn't have many contacts anyway so it was unsurprising, he answered it and put it to his ear,

"Hello?"

"Hello Max"

"Sokolov! How the hell did you get this number?!"

"It's easy when you have connections, I just wanted to call to set any worries aside. I made a deal with Claire and I intend to stick by it"

Max could hear claws on metal in the background and his voice sounded echoey. On the other end of the line Sokolov was walking through a cylindrical tunnel somewhere under the city, it was cold and water was slowly seeping through the cracks in the concrete as he walked across a metal floor that was suspended in the tunnel, clouds of mist emanated from his mouth as he talked into the phone,

"But that does mean that once our little vacation is over we'll get right back to it, after all I can only put my mission on hold for so long. Ciao"

He just caught the start of Max yelling something at him as he cancelled the call and pocketed his cell, a filthy grin spread across his face as he looked at the barrels of yellow liquid in the back of the box truck in front of him.

* * *

AN - This marks the end of the first arc of the story. I will now plan the second arc and start releasing it as soon as it is ready, so that you guys don't have to search for a new story i will add the next arc as additional chapters. Hope you enjoyed so far, more to come.


	19. (Arc 2) Chapter 1

It was very early morning in Zootopia and the sun was just beginning to rise, it was the middle of summer and the city was experiencing a dry spell that most of the residents were enjoying as school vacations where about to start. A piercing alarm that sounded like someone was attacking their brain woke up a brown bear in his mid twenties, he slapped his large paw over the alarm and he heard a cracking noise which made him wince, flicking the switch next to his bed to turn the light on he half opened his eyes to let them adjust, as he had feared he had smashed another clock. He groaned as he sat up and the metal bed creaked as he sat up in a pair of boxers and a grubby vest and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He grabbed a pair of jeans off of the floor and slid them on, he was thinner than most bears his size and his jeans hung low as he trudged out of his room into a corridor, a gentle hum was coming from the room at the end and he opened the heavy door to a deafening roar of working machines. The room was full of mammals who were producing and packing yellow powder into small plastic wraps ready to be sold by dealers on the street, he passed by several guards who were dressed like he was and he headed up a set of stairs at the end of the room. Popping a heavy door open at the top of the stairs he stepped out into a tidy kitchen, the loud noise of the drug factory was being kept at bay, he grabbed a beer from the fridge and went to the living room where a donkey was sat with a shotgun across his lap,

"Sup"

"fuck all, been quiet as shit all night"

"gimme dat"

The donkey passed the shotgun over to him, he took another sip of the beer and gave it to the donkey who got up from his chair and headed towards the kitchen,

"We got a shipment leaving in five hours, make sure the place is ready fool"

"yeah yeah"

There was a brief increase in noise as the door was opened but it quickly went back to being quiet, the TV was on in the corner of the room and was showing reruns of crappy old cable shows that he had seen a dozen times while guarding the place and so he sat back in the chair and lit a joint as he let the rising sun warm him up. He was halfway through the joint and wondering if he should grab something from the fridge when the window smashed and something bounced across the floor, a second later there was a deafening bang and a blinding flash, before he could get his senses back he was pulled out of the chair and slammed to the floor, his arms bent behind his back and something clasped tightly around his wrists. His sight was the first thing to return and he watched as over a dozen mammals in tactical gear and bullet proof shields moved into the kitchen and through the metal door, he could see bullet casings flying around as the mammals fired at what was behind the door before they disappeared into the factory. Outside the house the street was completely surrounded by ZPD and ZBI vehicles, a SWAT team was outside guarding the building and from behind the command vehicle at the end of the street in black suit pants and white shirts with bullet proof vests were Nick and Judy, they watched as a thin brown bear was dragged out in pawcuffs and forced face down onto the road. Gunfire continued inside for several minutes and they waited patiently as they listened to radio calls from the TUSK team that breached the factory, a tense few minutes went by before the all clear was called, they watched as another mammal, a panda, was dragged out in cuffs and unceremoniously thrown to the ground next to the bear. As soon as the panda was lying face down the two of them left their position and walked over to him, TUSK agents escorted CSI officers inside and nobody gave them a second glance. Nick opened up a pouch in his vest and took out a small black device that resembled a smartphone and turned it on, it had booted up by the time they had reached the panda,

"Sir I'm Agent Hopps and this Agent Wilde of the ZBI, what's your name?"

"I'm telling you jack shit"

"That's fine, my partners Lantern device will tell us what we want to know"

"This wont take a minute buddy, just relax"

Nick grabbed one of the pandas fingers and went to put it against the device in his paw, but the panda struggled and pulled it's arm away until he heard a click, Judy had her pistol in his face and the hammer locked back,

"Be a good boy and lay still"

"A cop wouldn't shoot a cuffed prisoner"

"We aren't cops"

There was a beep from the device as it read his fingerprint,

"You've been most helpful"

The two of them stepped back a bit as a rhino picked the panda up and chucked him into the back of a transport van, Nick had a grin on his face as he looked at Judy out the corner of his eye,

"Getting rough with our prisoner fluff?"

She held her gun up to show the underside of the handle, and he noticed something missing,

"I took the magazine out, the rules say nothing about scaring prisoners"

"I like it"

The Lantern device made a series of rapid bleeps and Nick looked at the screen,

"Intel was right, Glen Qinling, one of Sokolov's lieutenants"

"That's almost all of them, only one left"

"We'll get them all soon enough"

They turned to the house entrance as they heard Vicki, who was in charge of the CSI team, calling out their names from the front door,

"Nick Judy, you've got to see what we've found"

* * *

In a closed court hall room in one of the capital buildings a hearing was taking place with high ranking officials, Claire was in her best business suit and was sitting before the seven mammals who lead the Special Intelligence Select Committee, the mammals responsible for overseeing every government agency that protected it's borders and national interests. In front of each of them was a pile of documents and for the last three hours Claire, who for the past eleven months had been the Director of the ZBI, had been giving a detailed account of what they had been up to over that period in the hopes of securing more funding. The senator who was the head of the committee, a hugely overweight rhino with a thick southern accent who had been following everything in Zootopia since Max and Sokolov's arrival was listening intently as he studied the documents carefully, it was ultimately his decision which agency received what assets from the government and it was a delicate balancing act. Watching from the back of the large hall was Max, he had stayed by Claire's side and helped her the best he could since Sokolov's disappearance and without his help they would have never been able to make as large an impact against Sokolov's lieutenants as they had and so he had been allowed to stay for the hearing so long as he stayed quiet and didn't interfere. Claire had almost finished running through the last of the documents when his phone vibrated, he took it out and saw that he had a message from Darell who was Claire's Deputy Director, _urgent, call me back_ , he quietly got up and headed into the hall, some of the committee members noticed him leave but Claire was so involved in what she was doing that the clunk of the large door went unheard by her. As she read the last line in the document she closed it and waited for the senators response, his head was bobbing slightly from side to side as he reread parts he had marked earlier and everyone sat quietly waiting,

"Director Schwartzpelz you and your agency have made a significant impact in finding Sokolov's subordinates, and from the clearly vast amounts of evidence you have provided it's plain to see that his organisation is almost completely destroyed. What is left of it you have predicted to be cleared up within two months, a monumental feet I must add, so tell me why is it exactly that you want us to authorise an increase to your budget of 175 million dollars for detection equipment?"

"I think all the evidence I've provided speaks for itself senator"

"You have brought a lot, but these documents are clinical and are just cold streams of data, I want to hear your personal opinion on the matter"

"Senator we have been using every resource we have available for almost a year to track down and dismantle Sokolov's operations, we've seized large quantities of weapons, drugs, and money, all of which were helping him to build up a base of loyal subordinates. But no matter who we question or where we search we have found no trace of Sokolov himself, and more worryingly we haven't found the chemical weapon that he has threatened to use on the city, most of our intelligence is first brought about through using the cities various CCTV systems that are monitored by different organisations, but these are outdated and only cover 65 percent of the populated areas, none of the neighbourhoods of the city are covered except for those where the higher echelon live. We need to update every CCTV camera and install new ones under one system so that it can be monitored 24/7, without this we have little chance of catching Sokolov and preventing the next attack"

"If there is an attack"

"There will be sir"

"This country is threatened by mad mammals all the time Director, very few of them ever come to anything"

"I beg your pardon sir but he has already detonated one bomb in the city, his threat to detonate a second should be taken as a given that it will happen"

"Regardless, with the economy being as it is I only have a certain amount of money to give out and I have to prioritize our national defence against foreign aggressors who have tanks and nuclear weapons before dealing with lone terrorists"

"The first terrorist to attack on our home soil in nearly forty years senator, he is a huge threat that we cant take lightly sir"

"I understand your concern but I cant agree with you, not this time, I'm sorry but your request is denied. This hearing is adjourned"

Claire grabbed her files and shot up from her chair, she wasn't even trying to contain her anger and her chair almost fell over as it slid across the floor. They watched as she stormed to the door and slammed it behind her. In the corridor two guards flanked the doors and they flinched as she blasted past them, her claws clattering on the hard marble floor. Ahead of her she could see Max on his cell, his ear flickered as he heard the clacking and he turned his head to see a seething Claire coming towards him,

"Alright Darell we'll be there in about five hours, tell Vicki to run everything she can think of"

He put the cell away and walked with her as she didn't want to stop, he kept quiet until they reached their car in the parking lot below, they had a personal driver who took them everywhere when on agency business in a black armoured SUV and they were escorted by the Diplomatic Protection Service while in the capital. Max knocked on the window separating them from the driver and the window rolled down slightly,

"Take us to the airport"

The window rolled back up and the SUV pulled away with the rest of the cars. Claire dropped the files onto the floor and sat back against the chair as she closed her eyes and let out a long breathe in frustration.

"I take it they didn't buy it"

"Those fucking idiots would rather save money than save lives"

"You did everything you could Claire"

"I know, but I still feel like I'm failing, I'm not cut out for politics"

"Doesn't matter, we'll keep trying"

He put his paw against the back of her head and started scratching behind her ear, she leant her head into it and after a short while began to relax, the two of them had grown close over the last few months with all the time they spent together with work, and although staff like Nick and Judy could see the signs of something more than just friendship noone dared say anything to their faces, once she had calmed down she asked,

"What were you talking to Darell about?"

"Nick and Judy arrested Qinling earlier"

"He could have waited till we got back to tell us"

"They would have if they hadn't found something big"

"What is it?"

"I think it best you see for yourself"

* * *

A boar lazily scratched under his chin as waited for the coffee machine to finish brewing his fourth cup of coffee that day, the break room with whitewashed metal walls was warmer than his post and so he loosened his tie and undid the top button on his uniform shirt. The CCTV camera sat in the corner of the room blinked steadily as it watched him, every room in the facility was constantly monitored and he was one of the mammals responsible for watching the monitors to ensure that nothing got out of paw. Right now one of his colleagues was covering for him and he took the opportunity to have a smoke, the TV mounted on the wall was set to ZNN and the anchor Peter Moosebridge was reading the latest news,

"This Friday marks the one year anniversary of the bombing in Downtown, along what was due to be the route chosen for last years carnival. Events around the country are being planned to commemorate the 278 mammals that lost their lives during the attack, and a two minutes silence will be held at 2pm eastern standard time. Despite the efforts of intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the world the perpetrator of the attack has yet to be brought to justice"

On the right hand side of the screen a picture appeared showing a grey wolf in a suit with a jet black mask covering his head stood in the street with a pistol in his paw.

"Authorities have identified him as Joseph Artyem Sokolov and this is the only known photo of him, his is described as above average height with silvery grey fur and yellow tinted eyes, authorities so far have put his disappearance down to them having no information about what he truly looks like, and they urge anyone who has any information to contact the number on the screen bellow"

The coffee machine beeped to say it was done, the boar took one last drag from his cigarette before extinguishing it. He filled two disposable polystyrene cups with the hot brew, did his uniform back up, and headed back towards his post as the news continued with it's usually droning. The corridor was quiet, as he walked along the hard concrete floor a side door opened and a lion in a similar black uniform with white shirt walked out with a file in his paw, he was reading it as he quickly walked and the boar stepped to the side as he approached,

"Afternoon Sir"

The lion made a mumbled sound, he was too busy with the daily running of the facility to pay attention to anything else. The boar walked up to a metal door that was painted navy blue and lead to the security room, he balanced the cups in one hoof as he took his ID out of his breast pocket, he swiped it against a sensor on the wall and pushed the door open. Inside was a bank of monitors and a desk full of switches, sat at one of the chairs next to it was a yak a little bit taller than him, she looked over and gratefully took the cup of coffee that he offered her,

"Thanks. You been smoking again?"

"Yeah just a quick one"

"That stuffs going to kill you you know"

"With the stress that this place generates I need something to calm me down"

"Try gum"

"Gum?"

She took a small packet out of her pocket and chucked it to him,

"Seriously, give it a try"

"Maybe after my coffee. Anything happen while I was gone?"

"Not really, everyone's in the exercise yard. Couple of guys from D block looked like they might make moves against some from A block, but they thought better of it"

"Good, I don't need shit today"

They sipped their coffee as they went back to watching the monitors. The cameras were focused on a group of around 60 mammals, all in light brown jumpsuits with large black numbers on their backs. They were all in the detention centre situated thirty feet below the monitoring station and they were in an indoor yard, several of the mammals of various species were working hard on the exercise machines as others kept to their own groups as they eyed the others, looking for weaknesses. Sat on one of the exercise benches next to a rack of weights amongst one of these groups was a bison, his mane had grown out over the last year and it was all over the place, as he lifted a weight with one hoof he kept his other on his lap, a bolt that he had been slowly sharpening over the course of a week so that it wasn't picked up on the CCTV was tucked into his waistband. Tensions between prisoners from A block and D block, his block, were reaching boiling point. The prison was a secret facility and held the worst mammals that the country had, the group from A were members of a sick cartel that were caught red pawed killing and butchering mammals, they were selling the remains to twisted carnivores with the taste for real meat and they had not gone quietly when their operation had been discovered, they had killed more than a dozen law enforcement officers during the course of their arrest and the judge had sentenced them each to over 600 years in jail with no parole. The prisoners from D wing were a special group, after the bombing the government had washed it's paws of the ISB and had ordered the agency completely disbanded, all of the higher ups in the agency, whether they were part of what had happened in Zootopia or not, had been detained and put before a secret court, they were found guilty of crimes against the state and were dumped in a hole in the ground, this hole. Many of the former agents had taken an intense disliking to the cartel members after hearing them bragging and so fighting had broken out between them on several occasions, it had gotten to the point where almost all of them had been fitted with shock collars to prevent a full blown riot from erupting, but this didn't stop them from wanting to kill each other. The bison wanted no part of it, he was focused on something else, something personal. Before being put in prison he was an important mammal, he had sacrificed almost everything in his service to his country and he was fixated with the desire for revenge against the mammals who were responsible for his being here. He stared at the cartel members from across the yard as he continued to exercise, some of them were huddled together and whispering as if planning something, he wasn't the only one to spot this and three guards walking patrols along a catwalk above them stood ready with their rifles in paw, waiting for trouble, but the cartel members didn't seem to be bothered by him. The bison, along with others from his block, could tell by their body language that the tension between the blocks was about to boil over, he grabbed hold of the bolt between his fingers and was gearing himself up for a fight when a high pitched alarm started to sound, the inmates looked about, they had heard alarms here before but not this one, moments later the guards began yelling for everyone to lie on the ground. The inmates from the other two blocks quickly got on the floor, the ISB agents and cartel members were slower to comply as they eyed each other believing that one of them would use the opportunity to attack, but they all got down after more orders being barked by the guards as they aimed their rifles at them. In the security room the boar and yak were searching through the monitors, the radios were going ballistic with guards calling for help or being cut off halfway through calls, they had no idea what had triggered the alarm or what was going on until they spotted something on one of the monitors, a guard was shooting at something but they couldn't see what with the angle, they did however see the guard get hit several times and drop to the floor in a pool of blood, as they franticly searched the cameras around the area they spotted several other guards lying dead. The yak grabbed the radio but something was blocking the signal, she looked in horror at the monitors to see all the guards on the floor above them dead,

"What do we do?!"

"Lock the door I'll try the emergency line"

He grabbed the desk phone and pressed the only red button on speed dial as the yak shot up from her chair and pulled her keycard out of her pocket, but she heard the sound of the reader accepting someone else's card and the door opened and something was thrown inside, a blinding light and a deafening sound made her stumble into the wall. In the exercise yard the convicts were looking up at the sound of rapid gunfire coming from somewhere close by, two of the guards who had ordered them to the ground had run off to help their colleagues but hadn't returned. A deafening bang made everyone flinch and moments later more gunfire was quickly followed by the smashing of glass and a boar fell thirty feet from the tower next to the yard and hit the concrete floor like a ton of bricks, his body riddled with bullet holes. The guard fired into the security tower window until his magazine was empty, as he was changing mags the metal door leading to the yard burst open and a group of mammals in black tactical gear with duffel bags on their backs and wearing gas masks charged in and fired up at the guard with their assault rifles shredding him in a split second. The inmates backed up against the rear wall away from the intruders, there was a shimmer in front of them and a mammal in a black suit appeared out of thin air, his paws had faux leather gloves on and his feet were wrapped, but it was the mask on his face that the bison recognised.

"Sokolov!"

"Hello White, you're just the mammal I was looking for"

"How the hell did you do that?"

"Trade secret"

"You here to kill me?"

"On the contrary, I need a good hitter, someone who can do tasks that others can't. Interested?"

"Why should I join you?"

"You want revenge don't you? I cant provide that for you"

"I cant deny that I would love to kill a few mammals in Zootopia, but you are a sadistic freak, there's no way I would willingly join you"

As he had been talking Sokolov had calmly walked over to him and he was now stood toe to toe with White.

"That's the best bit, I was only asking out of decency, you don't really have a choice"

He hit White in the stomach with a quick jab, he was less than half the bison's size but he packed a hard enough punch to cause his knees to buckle beneath him and he fell to the ground gasping for air. Sokolov took one of his gloves off and flicked out his index claw, which was much longer and thinner than a normal wolfs, as he grabbed White's head with his other paw before whispering,

"Remember while you are trapped in there that I enjoy the pain that this will cause you"

He stuck the claw behind the joint in his jaw and slid it straight into his skull right up to his finger tip, after a few moments he withdrew his claw and pushed White to the floor. White's eyes rolled back in his head and he started seizing, he was foaming at the mouth and making horrible guttural noises as his veins turned black, the rest of the inmates were freaking out, some of them were hiding behind whatever they could while others grabbed at exercise weights as if they could protect them against the heavily armed intruders. After a minute White's seizure stopped and he stopped grunting, he lay still for a moment before slowly getting back to his feet, he walked over and stood next to Sokolov and looked towards the other prisoners, his eyes were a solid black and his muscles looked bigger than before, he was already a massive mammal but now he had muscles on muscles and looked like a living tank. Sokolov chuckled as he looked at White, one of the mammals who had come with him leant next to him and asked as he gestured to the prisoners,

"what about them?"

"Bring them with us, I need more soldiers for my war"


	20. (Arc 2) Chapter 2

In the Capital a lion was walking through a busy corridor inside one of most important government buildings that the public knew nothing about, the overhead neon lights reflected against the circle of five silver stars on his uniform epaulette and he was looking at a tablet computer, another lion in similar uniform kept pace with him only he was a step behind him. The two had just come from an important meeting that was hastily put together after an incident at what was supposed to be a secure site. They stepped of the corridor into an elevator and the second lion pressed for lowest floor, once the doors were closed he asked,

"What do you think they'll do?"

"Brass is having a shit fit over this, a blacksite being attacked by a wanted terrorist and an alien no less, the prisoners going missing alone is causing chaos, this is like a bad joke"

"Do we know where they're likely to go?"

"I have a pretty good idea, his warning before he disappeared last year has everyone on edge"

"So who are we warning?"

"Warning? We aren't warning anyone, can you imagine what would happen if this got into the media"

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, they stepped out into a short corridor where two guards in full dress uniform opened a set of double doors for them. The room inside looked like NASA control with dozens of mammals in military uniform sat at computers organising various military operations simultaneously. A few of the mammals saluted the lions as they passed by but the two gave them took no notice as they continued their conversation.

"Look Bill we cant sit back and do nothing"

"We aren't going to"

The Bill stopped in a small alcove in the wall and spoke quietly for a moment,

"Chuck I have a plan, but I need you to back me up on this one"

"You got it"

"I'm serious here Chuck we're going to get one shot at shutting this down before it gets out of paw, this could land everyone in some serious shit if it goes sideways"

"Bill we've served together since boot camp, you know I have your back"

"Thanks. Take this tablet to operations, have them put a strike map together. Coms, utilities, anything and everything they can think of"

"When do you need it by?"

"ASAP, I want everything ready to go at a moments notice"

Chuck took the tablet and headed off through a nearby door, Bill walked over to the railing overlooking the control area and called out orders to as he typed into a console next to him, for now all they could do was prepare as best they could.

* * *

After the destruction of the S12 HQ a new facility had been built in the Downtown District roughly a mile from the previous site, but where as the last facility had been a mothballed cold war bunker with a few modern upgrades this facility was a completely new build from the ground up. It was a modern steel and glass construction which made it stand out amongst the older concrete buildings around it and it stood as a symbol of resilience for the city. With the serious threat of Sokolov Claire had decided to alter the structure of the ZBI and instead of trying to keep their investigation a secret like Jack had done she had opted to merge most of the sections together to pool their resources in a hope of locating Sokolov or the truck, Sokolov's and Max's exact natures were still classified and only a select few knew what they were but so far the shake up of the agency had proven successful and had resulted in the arrests or deaths of the majority of Sokolov's followers, only his most dedicated soldiers remained at large.

Claire and Max had just arrived back at the ZBI headquarters after a short internal flight from the Capital, they didn't even have time to hang their jackets up before being collared by Vicki who was bouncing up and down like a kit who had consumed too much sugar, a very drained looking Darell was not far behind her and his eyes were black and baggy from lack of sleep. Vicki's mouth was going so quickly that everything she was saying was coming out as a blur and Claire clasped her paws on Vicki's shoulders.

"Vicki for the love of god slow down, once sentence at a time please"

"Oh sorry"

"What has got you so exited?"

"They found it, Nick and Judy found the truck"

Claire's eyes widened and she looked back to Max who had a grin on his face,

"Told you you'd want to see for yourself, show us Vicki"

Vicki led them all through the building, that was filled with very busy agents and support staff, and into the rear section where the CSI offices were. One of the offices was a small warehouse used for examination of items that couldn't be carried in by paw, and sat in the middle of this warehouse was a white box truck, it was very rusty and the windows were cracked but other than that it looked fine. Nick and Judy were talking to some of the CSI officers who were taking photos of the cabs interior when they heard the door going and noticed the group enter, they headed over as Max let out a whistle, Claire walked up to the truck and stared at it in disbelief,

"Where the hell did you find that?"

"At Qinling's drug lab. Hidden behind a false wall leading to a tunnel"

"Is it safe?"

"It's safe don't worry"

"It looks worse for ware, I thought he'd look after it"

Vicki took a lab coat off a rack, slipped it on and buttoned it up,

"He probably would have if it wasn't useless"

"What do you mean?"

"It's been abandoned, the battery was dead and we had to drag it onto a truck to bring it here. Not only that when we opened the back to get to the tanks inside we found only a tar like substance"

"So where's the chemical weapon?"

"There isn't one, not any more. I've done some preliminary tests on the substance, from what I can tell it used to be the weapon but it's degraded over time and is now useless to him"

"Maybe he doesn't know that"

"Oh I think he does, at the rate of decay it would have been useless after only three weeks"

"Three weeks? So he needs to make more"

Darell called over,

"That was my thought. I had our staff run checks on suppliers of the chemicals he would need to recreate the mix, only a couple of suppliers have sold any in any great quantities, we did a check on all of the orders and found them to be legitimate purchases by other companies taking advantage of bulk buy cost reductions. We've found nothing to tie to Sokolov"

"Max any idea if he could substitute other chemicals in?"

"I don't know, He only showed me how to make explosives not mind altering chemical weapons"

"So we're back to square one?"

"I think we're worse off than that"

"What do you mean Max?"

"Think about it, from what Vicki said he'd have known this wouldn't work" He gestured to the truck "But we had no idea about that, we've spent almost an entire year working on the assumption that he's going to use the truck to launch an attack, we focused everything we had on it"

"So?"

"So what if that was his intention, misdirect us with one threat while he works on something else. Something he doesn't want us to get even a hint at, something big"

"Smoke and mirrors"

"Exactly , I think we need to go back, search through every little murmur on the grapevine, we've missed something along the way"

"I agree with Max Claire, this is looking more like this was never intended to be used"

"Shit...Alright go back through everything we've gathered, see if you can come up with an answer. Darell have everyone drop what they're doing and assist you guys, you help them out as well Max"

"What are you going to do?"

"I have a security meeting for the bombing anniversary events, keep me up to date"

* * *

The day had dragged by for all of the ZBI as they began the unenviable task of re-evaluating all of the intelligence that had been gathered over the past year with a fine toothed comb, only to come to the same conclusion, nothing they had received was linked to Sokolov directly and so they had no idea what he was up to. Max ran his paw through the fur on his head as he stared at the screen of his computer, he had been going through it for so long that he could no longer see words as it all blurred into a bright mess. He vaguely heard a dull droning but blanked it out, that was until Judy hopped up onto his desk and nudged his arm,

"Huh?"

"I asked if you had found anything?"

"Fuck all"

He let out a yawn and he heard someone behind him follow him a second later,

"We've been here for hours, I don't think we're going to find anything?"

"I agree"

He looked over his shoulder to see Darell with his Ties hanging loosely around his neck and a cup of coffee in his paw, he took a sip of it and looked at his watch,

"It's 9pm, we're calling it a day"

"We haven't finished going through everything yet"

"I know, but we've all had a long day and right now you all look like you need a break. Go home recharge your batteries and we'll hit the remaining files tomorrow with a fresh head"

Nick called over from his desk without turning around,

"I'm up for that. Be nice to tuck the kits in myself"

Judy grabbed her coat from her chair as Nick got up with his hanging over his arm,

"I'm starving, think your mother's made anything for us?"

"If not carrots then I can order us something. See you guys tomorrow"

They headed off and Max cracked his back as he got up,

"What about you Darell?"

"I'm waiting for Claire, I have a report to give her"

"Any word from her yet?"

"She's still in her security meeting, there's a lot going on"

There was a buzzing noise and he pulled his phone out,

"Speak of the devil"

He answered the call, it only lasted a few moments and he only said alright before ending it.

"The meetings taking longer than she thought, they aren't going to be out till at least midnight"

"That sucks. I'm going for food, coming?"

"Sure why not"

They grabbed their coats and headed out, Max had explored much of the city during the last year but Darell and the others were still taking him places he hadn't been yet, and with Darell it mostly ended up being food places, he had a good eye for them and Max looked forward to what he would suggest this time.

* * *

Max dumped his jacket into the back of Darell's car as they pulled up outside a large bar that had a lot of mammals in biker gear stood outside having a smoke with their drinks, all of them were bigger than most members of their species and many of them were covered in tattoos. A huge bear was on the door with a denim jacket covered in patches from various biker gangs around the country, they had already seen him break up one fight between patrons by simply lifting them off the ground and dumping them away from each other as Darell found a parking spot. The building looked like it was in need of some repairing but the music and the smell of food coming from inside was enough to satisfy Max that this was going to be a good place. The bear had a smile on his face as they approached, he had a deep voice with a Russian hint to it,

"Darell my friend, it has been too long"

"Hi Sasha, hows it going?"

"Very well, we are expanding again"

"Congrats, there space for us?"

"There should be at the back, live band will be playing soon"

"Thanks, have a good one"

"You to"

Max followed Darell inside, the place was split in two with a double sided bar running the full length of the building, it separated a stage and viewing area from the other side that had a huge TV and dining area. It was full of mammals and they had to wait a few minutes to get served, Max was watching the live band setting up it's equipment as Darell spoke to one of the staff and a few moments later they were led to a table on the stage side behind a rope divider, there was a spare table and the lynx waitress popped a couple of menus on the table as they sat down and said she'd give them a minute to decide. They quickly looked through the menu and ordered just in time for the band to start playing, they were a rock group and were quite good. After a couple of hours and several beers the band had finished playing and it was only the regulars who were still here, Darell finished his beer and ordered another for each of them, after they arrived and he had paid the waitress he decided to prod Max a bit,

"So"

"So?"

"You and Claire"

"What about us?"

"Are you two an item or what?"

"You're not very subtle are you?"

"Should I be? We're both blokes and it's not like we're kits"

"True. There's nothing going on"

"Could have fooled me"

"Oh really?"

"You two are almost inseparable, you're either working or hanging out all the time, it's like you need a crowbar to separate you two"

"We're works colleagues and friends, nothing more. Why the interest anyway, you after her?"

"You know I'm gay Max, you've even met my partner"

He took a sip of his beer as he thought about the betting pool that Nick had started about them, from what he had heard the ZPD had done something similar between him and Judy when they were as close as Claire and Max are, and it was obvious how that turned out. He just might talk to Nick about placing a bet of his own tomorrow.

* * *

It was late at night and ZPD Police Commissioner Adrian Bogo had just got back from a day full of meetings with the Zootopian Council as well as members of the emergency services to arrange preparations for the upcoming remembrance events to mark the one year anniversary of the Downtown District bombing. He hung his overcoat on a peg by the front door and dropped his satchel case full of documents on the floor in the living room, loosening his tie he headed into the kitchen and found a note from his wife of over twenty years saying that she had left some food for him in the fridge. A smile spread over his face as he opened the fridge and saw his favourite pie and a bottle of beer inside, he drank half the beer as he waited for his pie to warm up in the microwave and he finished it off with his meal. After cleaning up and getting himself ready he snuck across the landing, his teenage daughters door was open and she was snoring away like a chainsaw, he shook his head and closed it before heading into his room and climbed into bed with his wife, she was a cape buffalo like him and she worked as an assistant to the mayors office, he put his arm around her and kissed her on the cheek before settling down and quickly nodding off. His sleep was abruptly ended as he felt something heavy against his face, his eyes snapped open to see a large mammal in a black ski mask holding his hoof over his mouth, his arms and legs were pinned down by other mammals and all he could do was struggle helplessly as his wife was dragged out of bed screaming. He was forcefully dragged across the bed and flipped onto his front with his head facing the bedroom door, his arms and legs were cuffed to the bed and his body tied down with a thick wire that was thrown over him before he was gagged with a cloth. His wife was forced by some of the large group of mammals the corridor and held with a knife against her throat where he could see, she sobbed uncontrollably,

"Adrian! Help!"

"Daddy!"

Two other mammals dragged his daughter out of her room and forced her next to her mother, the two of them were unable to stop their terror from spilling over and Adrian watched in horror as Sokolov calmly walked in, pulled a chair from under the dresser in the corner of the room and sat down in a reclined pose, Adrian struggled in vain as the wire and cuffs dug into his skin as he muffled ineligible curses at Sokolov,

"My my commissioner this is a nice house you have, you've done well for yourself. And you have such a nice family, a lovely wife and a beautiful daughter"

Sokolov lifted his right paw and gave a gentle flick towards one of the mammals by the door, they went into the corridor and Adrian's wife and daughter were dragged down the hall out of his sight, his eyes were wide and he pulled hard enough against his restraints to make him bleed as he heard his family screaming and crying before a loud bang rang out, His wife screamed at the top of her voice,

"No! Melissa!"

A second bang rang out, the only sound heard was Adrian's muffled yells as he struggled to get free. A single punch to the face from one of the larger mammals stunned him for a moment and his jaw was grabbed in a vice like grip and he was forced to look up, the mammal removed his ski mask and a devious smile was beneath it,

"Remember me Bogo?"

Adrian's gag was removed and blood dripped from his nose where he had been punched,

"White!"

White drew a knife out of a sheath on his belt and held it up for Adrian to see,

"Some of my new friends taught me a few tricks with a knife, let me show you what I've learned"

Five police cruisers screeched into the normally quiet residential street where the Bogo's lived, a large group of their neighbours were standing on the street in dressing gowns and they were looking at the house and cars as they slid to a halt outside. Another cruiser was already parked outside but it's lights and sirens were off, and when the officers ran to it they saw two dead officers inside, there were bullet holes in the windows and the officers, they looked like they had been ambushed as neither had their weapon drawn. A scream of immense pain emanated from the Bogo residence and the officers charged up the front path to the door, it was locked and it took several smacks with the large battering ram that a polar bear was wielding to knock the reinforced door through. They barrelled through the house to the scream and what they saw nearly made them throw up,

"Get an ambulance down here!"

An hour later an army of detectives and CSI officers lead by Senior Detective Higgins were scouring the house for evidence in forensic boiler suits, the mood was sombre and with the seriousness of the crime the first responders and the paramedics had all been fingerprinted to separate their prints from any others. The bodies of Carrian and Melissa Bogo had been photographed and removed, they had each been shot in the head with a single bullet and left where they had fallen. The house was tidy considering the intrusion but master bedroom was something else entirely, it was soaked in blood and a two mammal team of specialist CSI recovery officers were carefully collecting a piece of sickening evidence, a large piece of skin from Bogo's back that had been peeled off his back. The officers in the room were struggling to hold the contents of their stomachs from coming back up, as Higgins watched the recovery officers sealing the skin in a special box his phone rang. He walked out of the room to a quieter spot away from the forensic officers who were organising everything and answered it, the call only lasted a few moments but it made his heart sink. He walked to the top of the stairs and called out with a wavery voice,

"Everybody be quiet and listen up"

He waited for a moment for everyone's attention,

"I've just got off the phone with the hospital" He swallowed hard and forced his voice back to normal as best he could "Police Commissioner Adrian Bogo has died of his injuries"

Everyone visibly deflated at the news, many of the detectives including Higgins knew him personally from the time he spent running Precinct One. It was especially hard on Higgins as their families were close friends and one of the detectives from his unit put his paw on his shoulder in a sign of support, Higgins rubbed his nose and sniffed as a tear ran down his face,

"I want everybody to do absolutely everything they can to find whoever did this, I want you to turn the heat up under every resource you have, every snitch turn em inside out, every source hang them upside down and see what falls out of their pockets. Somebody knows something about what happened here, I want to know what they know and I want to know it yesterday!"

The was a bustle of activity as everyone took it to heart and started rushing out, Higgins turned to Delgado who had had his paw on his shoulder,

"Call Nick and Judy, I want to get the ZBI in on this"

"I know they liked Bogo, but does the ZBI have a mandate for this?"

"He's uncle to their kits Del, they'll fight to be involved if they have to"

* * *

AN- Due to a technical error when i uploaded this i had to delete it and re-upload it, hopefully it is displaying properly for everyone now.


	21. (Arc 2) Chapter 3

A taxi pulled up outside a large modern apartment complex in the early hours of the morning, inside was a very drunk Darell and a less drunk Max. They had stayed in the biker bar until closing time and with the two of them well beyond the legal limit to drive the bar owner who was a close friend of Darell called them a cab. Darell took out his wallet to pay his half of the fair but was so drunk he was unable to figure it out and so Max paid for him, after helping him out and over to the door of the apartment complex Darell stumbled in through the front door and had to use the wall to steady himself. Max offered to help him up to his apartment but he refused several times, so Max popped Darell's cap that he had picked up at the bar on his head and headed back to the taxi. Darell watched the taxi pull away and stood in a stupor for a few minutes before slowly and unsteadily making his way through the internal security door to the elevator, it took him a few attempts to press the button as he was seeing more than double, but when it did finally arrive he fell flat on his back as he had been leaning against the elevators doors. The next thing he knew he was outside his apartment with no idea how he had managed to get there, he fumbled to get his keys in the lock and being as quiet as he could as his partner was in bed he opened the door and walked into the hall of the apartment, only to knock a picture off the wall as he lost his balance. He managed to catch it but ended up in a heap on the floor with a loud thud, he cursed under his breath and leant the picture against the wall, he clambered onto his feet and stumbled into the kitchen, he need water and quickly if he was to sober up in time for work. He flicked on the light switch and froze at what he saw, a tiger was sat at the breakfast counter, Darell reflexively went for his gun but stopped as he heard an unmistakable click as the barrel of a gun was jammed against the back of his head. He felt his gun taken from it's holster and he was shoved face down onto the counter in front of the tiger.

"Remember me Darell?"

"Carlos? I thought I had you locked up!"

The tiger leant in close to Darell's face, his eyes were completely black and his veins were darkened. He had a long shiny knife in his paw,

"You did, but I've made some friends. They helped me get out of the pen, and I taught them a few of my old tricks with a knife"

* * *

Judy and Nick were quiet in their cruiser as it pulled into the visitors carpark outside of city morgue. The two of them had only been home for a few hours and were just getting ready to go to bed when they had been called by Delgato with the bad news. A dozen marked and unmarked police cruisers were parked outside and there were two police officers stood outside the entrance. They got out and headed over to the door and the officers opened it for them before they got there, the inside was filled with officers and there were a couple of officials talking to morgue staff but the pair paid not attention as they headed straight for the elevator. When it arrived on their floor they could see Clawhauser sat on a bench in the corridor, his eyes were red and puffy, his fur was wet from where he had been crying, she put her paw gently on his arm,

"Ben"

As soon as he saw her his eyes filled with tears again and he burst into tears, she hugged him best she could and couldn't help but cry some herself. Nick gave him a hug as well and after a few minutes Ben had calmed down enough to stop crying. They sat with him and made small talk, he didn't say much through any of it, simply answering their questions with a nod or shake of his head. The door to the examination room opened and Vicki walked over to them.

"Ben I have to take them into the room now, we'll be done as soon as I can I promise"

He nodded and the pair followed her into the room, once she had closed the door she sighed and rested her head against it as she let out a sigh,

"This is killing him, I've never seen him like this before"

"He was close to Bogo"

"I know. I'm worried about him, he's not speaking much to anyone"

"We can try and get him to talk afterwards if you like, he's usually open with us"

"Id appreciate that Judy. Come with me"

She lead them to a separate room leading off from their one, it had a metal surgical table next to a cooler where they kept dead bodies. She opened the latch and the door swung open under pneumatic pressure, carefully she pulled the carriage with Bogo's body on it out of the cooler and onto the table, he was completely covered with a thick plastic sheet.

"I have to warn you, his body is badly damaged. There's a bucket if you have to..you know"

She peeled back the sheet with a sickening wet sound. Nick and Judy gasped in horror at what they saw and they both gagged, it took a few moments and some nasty sounding coughing for them to be able to compose themselves, neither had been sick but they were both several shades greener. The entirety of Bogo's upper torso from his waist up to the base of his neck had been skinned back to the muscle, he looked like a victim from a horror movie and there were several deep cuts across his chest. Judy was holding onto her face as she stared at the injuries, she could barely get her words out.

"Oh my god"

Nick's arms were limp at his sides, it was like someone had just pulled control from him,

"I knew he'd been attacked, but..."

Vicki waited for a moment more before beginning her assessment,

"This was done while he was awake. A very sharp blade, roughly 8 inches in length was used, there are tell tale markings in the muscle tissue. He was also stabbed in specific points, they would reduce his capability to resist his attackers, but they were not in vital enough areas to kill him quickly. Whoever did this intended for him to be alive as long as possible"

"That's disgusting, who the hell would do something like this?"

"Sorry Judy, I cant tell you that that's your job, I can only give you what I have here"

Nick shook his head and closed his eyes as he tried to think of what to do.

"I don't want to seem like I'm asking the obvious, but what killed him?"

"He drowned. See the incision here"

She pointed to a deep slice that was wider than the others just below his peck muscle on his left side,

"This wound pierced his lung, by the time they had got him to the hospital it was too late for him, and with the severity of his wounds it would have easily gone unnoticed"

"Christ"

Vicki pulled the sheet back over Bogo and slid the carriage back into the cooler.

"He was also bound with some sort of wire round his wrists and ankles, he struggled against it, there are deep cuts here and here. The wound is consistent with other bound victims I've seen in the past"

She lead them to her office and gave them each a glass of water, they sat together in silence for a few minutes for them to recover. Nick put his glass down and quietly asked,

"What about his wife and daughter?"

"They have fresh bruises on their wrists and necks indicating a struggle, they both have a single shot to the head. His guards were also shot, one shot each, I've removed the bullets and sent them to ballistics. I'll give you the full medical report once it's finished. Higgins asked if you could see him at the station when you're finished here, he's not expecting you right away, I told him this would take longer."

"Why?"

"I know how much Bogo meant to you guys. Plus I'm hopping you can get Ben to come out of his shell and talk"

* * *

The atmosphere in the Wildehopps cruiser was gloomy to say the least, they had spent the best part of two hours after leaving Vicki's office trying to console a very upset Ben, his own crying had broken through their exterior resolve and they had stayed with each other until they were all drained enough to be able to continue with some semblance of normality, not that anything about this felt normal. Judy pulled into a spare parking spot along the side of precinct one and she killed the engine. Nick took his seatbelt off and was about to open his door when he heard sniffling next to him, his ears drooped as he saw tears running down Judy's cheek, he pulled her across and onto his lap in a tight hug,

"It's alright Judy"

"Sorry. I cant help but think how are we going to tell James and Violet, they loved them to bits"

"I don't know Judy, we'll think of something"

Judy took a tissue from her pocket and wiped her tears away, she took a couple of deep breaths to compose herself and she ruffled the fur under her eyes a bit to mask her crying.

"You good?"

"Yeah" She looked meekly at him "do you mind handling the guys for now?"

He nodded and gave her a quick kiss on the head

"I'll ask the questions."

"Thanks. Lets go"

They got out and headed across the parking lot towards the entrance, it was still early morning and most mammals who worked in the government area around the precinct were still fast asleep, yet they had expected far more mammals to be here, especially those from the media as Bogo had been in the headlines regularly for the last few months with new policies released to modernise the police force that drew some controversy for how much they would shake things up in the government and his death would have surely drawn a mob of reporters wanting the scoop, yet there was nobody around except for a few solemn looking officers having a smoke break. As they entered the precinct lobby it was a little busier with a few patrol officers taking their paperwork back to be filed and one familiar Hippo stood next to the front desk, the top couple of buttons on his shirt were undone and his tie hanged slack around his neck as he gave a half smile as he saw them, his voice was far from upbeat and he gestured for them to follow him as they spoke,

"Nick, Judy, good to see you again, it's been a while"

"It's nice to see you too Higgins, I wish it was under better circumstances"

"You and me both"

"How you holding up?"

"Struggling, I'm not sure it's sunk in properly yet. How about you guys?"

"We're getting by. Where is everybody?"

"What do you mean?"

"Where's the press, they're bound to know by now I'd have expected some here by now"

"About that, the Mayors office has put a gag order on releasing information till midday, he's commissioned the ZNN to put together a tribute to be released along with the announcement on the midday news"

"Who's in the news team?"

"It's one reporter here to do interviews, draws less attention, that's why things are looking about as normal as you can get around here at the moment"

"Must be a good reporter"

"You two know her, It's Marigold"

Judy's ears perked up a little,

"My sister?"

"Yeah, she's in the briefing room, you can see her afterwards"

They followed Higgins into the investigations room towards the back of the precinct and saw a small army of detectives and other officers who had been drafted in to assist in the investigation, they were still setting up and sorting through the evidence that had been collected so far, there were cork boards with photos from the scene pinned to them and copies of witness statements and other documents piled up on a table beneath them. Higgins stopped next to it and began running them through as he pulled down pictures for them to get a closer look,

"OK so at around half past midnight we received calls about screams and gunfire coming from Bogo's house. First responders were on scene in six minutes, they found his protection detail from the Diplomatic Protection Division based in Tundratown dead in their cruiser. Officers heard Bogo screaming and they broke down the front door, at the top of the stairs they found Melissa and Sandra shot once each in the head, inside the bedroom they found Bogo. You've been to the morgue so I don't have to tell you what state the officers found him in. He was pronounced dead at one forty six this morning by the hospital"

"What evidence have we got so far?"

"Very little, forensics are still going over the house but so far we haven't found any fresh prints except for the Bogo's, no fur or anything left behind either, they even took the bullet casings"

"Do we have anything to go on?"

"Not at the moment, nobody has claimed responsibility for this but it's obviously a professional job, none of the locks were tampered with and the protection details keys were still on them. Bogo's service gun was still in it's holster and his shotgun was under his bed so it looks like they were taken by surprise"

"Anyone we know who has it out for him? Anyone with connections to pull something like this off?"

"We cant find anything, but you might be able to. When I was with you guys in S12 we had access to hardware that far exceeds the ZPD's. You might have better luck finding something than us"

"We'll see what we can dig up, we have full access right?"

"Yeah, whatever you guys need you get, if anyone gives you trouble tell them to call me"

"Thanks Higgins. What do you think carrots?"

"I think we need to stop by the house, Bogo took lots of work home with him, might be something there"

Higgins took two folders from the table and held them out,

"These are copies of everything we have so far, I'll email you updates as we get them"

They took the folders and shook his hoof before heading back out into the hall, the pair had barely made it halfway down the corridor when Judy was almost barrelled off her feet by a dark blond ball of fluff that dove onto her from behind, it took them a moment to realise who it was and Nick grabbed the ball by the scruff of the neck and pulled her up,

"Marigold, how many times has Judy told you not to jump on her like that?"

"Sorry"

Nick let her go and she helped Judy onto her feet and brushed her down,

"Sorry Judy"

"It's fine Mari, nothing broken"

Marigold pulled a dictaphone out of her jacket pocket and waved it in front of them,

"You weren't trying to sneak away from here before I got to interview you were you?"

"Look we've got an investigation to get to, another time"

"I know your busy I wont take much of your time"

"Mari you know we can't comment about an ongoing investigation"

"Please? I know you two were close to Bogo, I just want to make the tribute perfect, having some words from you two would work well don't you think? I promise I wont ask about the investigation."

Nick and Judy looked at each other for a moment before Judy answered,

"Alright you have five minutes"

* * *

Max walked into the office the following morning with a cup of coffee from the local shop in his paw, he had hardly slept but he wasn't hung over, with a faster metabolism due to his nature he could process alcohol faster than others so long as it wasn't hard liquor and so he was feeling pretty good, though he couldn't imagine what state Darell would be in. He opened the door to the investigations room where he worked with many of the former S12 members and hung his jacket on the back of his chair, there were only a couple of other agents here and he noticed that Nick and Judy were missing. He had just sat down when the door to the room burst open and a very pissed off looking Claire was stood in the door,

"Where's Darell?"

"He's not here yet?"

"No and I've been trying his cell for the last two hours"

"He's probably just running behind, we got out of the office late last night"

"Well he's chosen a hell of a day to be late, have you seen the news? Commissioner Bogo, his family and guards were all killed last night"

Max dropped his coffee cup onto his desk and almost spilled it,

"Bloody hell, we got anybody for it?"

"No, and so far forensics haven't found anything. Nick and Judy are our liaisons with the ZPD for this, they've requested our help"

"That's got to be rough for them, he was their boss before they transferred right?"

"Yeah, from what I hear they were friends as well. I have to be at another meeting at city hall in three hours and I need Darell here by then to take over from me"

"Look I'll go to his place and see if he's there, I'll give you a call when I get him"

* * *

Max pulled into a parking spot outside Darell's apartment complex and headed inside, the concierge desk was empty and a small sign said that they were tending to a call and would be back in a few minutes. Max buzzed Darell's apartment and waited for the click of the electric door unlocking to let him in, only there wasn't any. He buzzed the apartment again and waited, still there was no answer. Checking around to see that nobody was looking he went behind the concierge's desk and found the override button and pressed it before quickly dashing to the door before it locked itself again. He headed into the elevator and pressed the button for Darell's floor, the elevator smoothly rose through the building as a local radio station played through the speakers, it had been a roller-coaster of a year for him and he was now more or less used to how things worked here in comparison to what he had been used to, but it was nice to find that they had similar music and he hummed along with the tune as he waited. A quiet ding told him he had arrived and the door smoothly slid open, stepping out into the corridor he could see a fat dobermann in a plain black and white suit with a red tie that the concierge's wore stood outside Darell's apartment knocking on the door,

"Mr Scratch is everything alright?"

Max walked up to the dobermann,

"What's going on?"

"Oh Sir we've had noise complaints about this apartment but I'll sort it out"

"What noise complaints?"

"Sorry sir I cant go into details until I've spoken with the resident"

Max pulled his wallet out of his pocket and opened it for the dobermann to see

"I'm with the ZBI and I'm here to see the resident, so tell me what's going on"

The door behind them opened and an elderly anteater leant heavily on his cane as he was almost doubled over.

"I've put in several complaints from last night, there was loud music playing in the early hours, and not long ago there was a loud crashing noise from inside. I worked hard all my life and I don't expect my retirement to be spoiled by youngsters partying all night"

"Partying?"

"Yup, there were five or six mammals whooping and yelling as they left his apartment at 3am, it's disgraceful"

"I left him here at two this morning, that doesn't sound right"

He banged heavily on Darell's door with his fist and called out loudly,

"Darell it's Max open up!"

There was no response,

"Do you have a spare key to the apartment?"

"Yes it's in the safe downstairs, I'll go get it"

The dobermann waddled to the elevator and he barely made it inside with his gut. Max banged on the door again and called out to Darell, he had hit the door a little to hard and it opened momentarily just enough for him to catch a whiff of something that made his eyes bulge open. He pulled his radio off his belt,

"Sierra Lima two seven, Priority, I need units to agent Darell Scratches address code 3"

He put the radio away drew his gun, he then called out loudly

"Darell I'm coming in!"

With one harsh kick he broke the door around the lock and it swung open, the smell of blood poured out of the apartment and the old anteater grabbed his nose as a look of disgust spread across his face. Max flicked the light on and carefully moved in, there was blood all over the walls of the apartment and everything had been turned upside down, the TV was smashed on the floor and the place looked like a tornado had passed through. The bedroom was the first room that he came to and he quickly moved in making sure that there was noone there. A beheaded body of a black cat was lying naked on the bed and a police shield was pinned to it's chest. He quickly began searching the rest of the apartment when he heard a muffled sound coming from the kitchen, he headed straight there and his blood ran cold at what he saw, he pulled his radio back out as he got onto the floor next to Darell,

"Sierra Lima two seven agent down I need an ambulance now!"

He dropped the radio and gun on the floor and quickly pulled some dish towels off a hook and tried to tend to Darell, his injuries were extremely severe and he was bleeding badly,

"Shit hold on Darell helps on the way"

Sirens could be heard approaching in the distance, as he tied the towels around his wounds to try and stem the bleeding he could see Darell mouthing something, he leant in close and put his ear next to his mouth, he could barely make out what he said before it stopped, he looked over to see a blank stare from Darell, he put his paw to his neck and couldn't feel a pulse, frantically he started CPR as he heard the emergency vehicles turning up outside.

* * *

In one of the many empty industrial sites on the outskirts of the city, hidden in a large aerodrome that hadn't seen any aircraft in over seventy years a group of mammals in heavy tactical gear were patrolling the outside of the worn building. Although none of them were wearing insignia they were all members of special branch of the ZPD and they were charged with protecting the buildings contents whatever the cost. The group relied on secrecy to keep most mammals at bay and noone had come close to the site in years, one of the two mammals who were stood by the buildings entrance as the others patrolled the grounds took a packet of cigarettes out of his uniform and popped one in his mouth,

"You know your supposed to wait for break to have one of them, Mason will bust your balls if he catches you"

"I know, but Mason isn't here"

He lit the cigarette and took a drag before offering the packet to his partner who shook his head,

"Suit yourself"

"Christ that stinks, that's those nasty foreign cigs aren't they"

"yup, I know a guy who brings bulk in for cheap, sends a few my way and I get him booze when I go abroad"

"I don't know how you can stomach them"

He chuckled as he let out a mouthful of smoke and looked at his partner,

"Years of practice"

There was a splattering sound as the cigarette dropped out of his mouth and he fell to the floor, his partner ran a paw through the fur on his face and saw red as he pulled it in front of him,

"Jesus!"

Before he could grab his radio he felt a sharp pain rip through his chest and his legs give way under him, he crumpled to the floor and started chocking as the taste of blood filled his mouth, he wanted to grab his radio but was unable to move, he could do nothing as a large figure stood over him, pointed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

White stood in front of the door a gun in one hoof and a keycard that they had taken from Bogo in the other, moments later the rest of his group came around the corner over to him,

"Are they taken care of?"

"Yes sir, all the exterior guards are dead"

"Good, lets get Sokolov what he wants"


	22. (Arc 2) Chapter 4

AN- This chapter is longer than the others as i am moving house on wednesday and i will be without internet for around two weeks. I will try and get another bumper chapter put together for when i return. Hope you like.

* * *

The doors to the emergency ward were flung open as Claire burst in at full pelt, she had been getting her files together for the security meeting when the call came in, without hesitation she dropped everything and headed straight to the hospital as fast as she could. As she turned the corner

she could see Max sat on a bench in front of one of the operating theatre doors and she ran over to him, when she got within a few steps of him she could see that his fur around his paws and mouth were covered in dried blood. She slowed down and gently put her arm on his shoulder as she looked to see if he was injured,

"Is that yours Max?"

He looked at her puzzled and rubbed where she had touched before realizing what was there,

"No..That's Darell's"

"What the hell happened Max?"

"Someone attacked him in the night. He's in a bad way Claire, I had to resuscitate him before the ambulance arrived, they don't know if he'll make it"

"Oh christ"

He had to grab her to stop her from walking into the theatre after a nurse who wheeled in a trolley full of replacement surgical tools and he forced her to sit down next to him.

"Claire there's nothing you can do, going in there now will only put him at further risk, all we can do is wait"

She took a deep breath and clenched her fist in frustration,

"I know I know. Christ what the hell is happening here. Bogo and Darell in the same night"

"I don't know what's happening Claire, but we have a witness that says a group of mammals left his apartment about an hour after I dropped him off. His apartments covered in blood and its been trashed"

"It'll take forensics ages to get through it all then, do we have any descriptions of the group?"

"No, the witness could give us a number but couldn't make out their faces, they were dressed in dark clothing and that's all he could tell me before I left, the agents there now may have something else from him"

"We need something to go on"

"I may have something. Before the medics arrived Darell whispered something to me, a name. Does Carlos Raya mean anything to you?"

"Yeah it does, he's a sadistic gang leader. He and his crew were locked up, before you arrived, for heinous murders. Darell was one of the agents responsible for bringing them down"

"Do we have a file on them?"

"It's on the server, you have sufficient clearance to view it, I don't know how they can be involved though they're serving consecutive life sentences"

"It could be someone connected to them, either way it needs to be checked"

"Alright. You're having this one Max, I need this locked down fast, Nick and Judy are dealing with Bogo's case so you can choose anyone else from investigations to join you"

"Is Liam assigned to anything?"

"Not at the moment"

"I'll take him then"

"Anyone else?"

"I'll defer to him on choice"

"I'll let him know you'll meet him at the office, get yourself cleaned up before you head there"

She gestured to his face where the blood had dried,

"I'll wait here and let you know when he's out of surgery"

"Don't you have a meeting to go to?"

"My people take priority over those pencil necks"

* * *

Nick slowed down as they approached the turning into Bogo's street, he had turned the unmarked cruisers light bar in the radiator grill on as they had come off the main road and the officer stood by the police cordon that blocked off the street lifted the police tape up enough for the cruiser to pass under. Other than police and ZBI the only other mammals allowed in the street were the residents on the strict understanding that they didn't obstruct the officers, who had put up white forensics barriers around the house to prevent photos or contamination, from doing their duties. Nick pulled to a stop behind a CSI truck and turned the engine off, he leant under the drivers seat and pulled out one of the energy drinks that he kept tucked away for when he needed a pick me up and there wasn't any coffee available, he took a swig of it before offering it to Judy who gratefully took it from him and took a large gulp, they had both been up for far longer than they usually were and it was beginning to show in their eyes. He took the drink back from her when she was done and finished it off as Judy said,

"Lets go in, see what we can find and then try and get some sleep"

"You're right, neither of us are in any state to carry on"

Nick put the empty can in the door well and got out, he dumped his jacket in the car as did Judy before they headed past a police officer guarding the entrance to the house who recognised them from their time in the ZPD. Inside there were several yellow number plaques marking where photos were to be taken or had already been taken of evidence, there were bloody paw prints on the wooden floorboards in the living room that lead from the stairs to the back of the house where they knew the kitchen was. Before they could go anywhere though a female deer in full forensic uniform came down the stairs with a box in her hand full of forensic analyses tools,

"You cant come in here, not like that we're still going through the house"

She shooed them outside and she stepped into a pair of covers for her hoofs that let her walk around outside without cross contaminating the scene as she went back and for between the truck and the house.

"You two are?"

"ZBI agents, I'm Nick and this is Judy"

"I'm Siân, How come ZBI's involved?"

"Bogo was a close friend of ours"

"Sorry for your loss"

"Thanks. What have you found so far? Higgins didn't really have anything to go on when he called us"

"Well if you put on some scrubs then I can show you around, it'll be easier"

They spent some time searching through the truck for forensic garb that would fit, with Siân being larger than them as most officers in the ZPD still were it was difficult for them to find anything, but after a while they managed to get the smallest uniforms that were in the truck to fit with a couple of well placed pieces of duct tape that was kept in the truck at all times. With everything ready Siân picked up a fresh forensics case and lead them up through the house, she got half way up the stair with them following her when she stopped and looked back at them,

"I think it's only fair to tell you, it's ugly up here, if you need to leave at any point I'll understand"

They nodded to her, after seeing Bogo earlier they were not looking forward to what was up there. As soon as they could see the upstairs hallway their hearts sank, there were two large blood splatters on the wall just before the master bedroom and there were small marker posts stuck to the floor next to each one outlining how the bodies of Bogo's wife and daughter were found.

"Melissa was found here, she was slumped against the wall with a single gunshot wound to the side of the head. Sharleen was over there by the bedroom door, she was face down on the floor, entry wound in the back of the head just above the neck, there's scorch markings on both of their fur indicating that they were shot point blank. I've been through the entire house and have found no signs of struggle other than the daughters room and the main room so everything happened here."

"What about the bloody footprints downstairs?"

"I have no idea about those, they look canid but I wont be sure till I get back to the lab. They head into the kitchen to the sliding doors but there's no trace of them outside, however if they had anything like we are wearing then it would be difficult to trace"

"Why do you think they have these?"

Nick gestured to the covering on his feet that looked like upside down shower caps.

"Well like I said there's no trace once they leave the house. Plus I haven't been able to find any sign of forced entry, and the burglar alarm was deactivated with a code. Whoever did this knew what they were doing, and possibly the ZPD response times as they were out before they got here"

"God I hope that isn't true"

They stopped just short of Bogo's bedroom, Judy and Nick took a deep breath before heading inside. Their stomachs turned at the sight, there was blood everywhere, the bed was almost completely red with dried blood covering the sheets and there was blood sprayed onto the wall in several spots, neither of them could find any words to say.

"Bogo was bound to the bed, responding officers untied him and tried to help him, that's where a lot of the blood on the floor is from. Bar for a few items moved for the paramedics to work on him everything is as it was."

"I've..I've seen enough"

"That's alright, I understand"

"Have you got a copy of all the photos for us? We need to show our superiors"

"Certainly, I have a digital copy for you in the truck"

They headed back outside and they stripped out of their forensic overalls and after getting the pen drive they thanked Siân and headed back to the car, once inside Nick could see Judy rubbing her arm over and over,

"You alright carrots?"

"No, I feel uncomfortable, after what we've seen on the force I thought id be able to handle this but I feel like something's crawling under my skin"

"I know how you feel, my furs standing on end... Let's get a copy to Claire and head home, a shower and some food should help us"

"I'm not really hungry"

"I know, but we need our energy if we're going to get this sorted"

He started the engine and headed out of the street onto the highway towards the office.

* * *

A set of roller shutter vehicle doors rose up on a large warehouse hidden out of view along an overgrown track and a large truck with a canvas cover over the back pulled into the building before the shutter was closed behind it. The engine was shut off and several mammals in black uniforms got out of the vehicle and began unloading large metal boxes from the back. White stepped out of the trucks cab and wandered over to what used to be an old office but it now looked nothing like it, the inside had been converted into a workshop with wires and small electronic devices that had been sorted and stacked in neat piles on different tables. Sat at one of the tables as he worked with a soldering iron to join a number of wires together was Sokolov. Hearing the door go he looked up to see White stood in the doorway, he put the soldering iron down and leant back in the chair.

"Did you get what I needed?"

"I did, we have twelve cases, all of them still sealed as you said they would be"

"Was there any resistance?"

"None, we took them by surprise as I planned. We left nothing behind except for the package"

"Very good Mr White. Bring one of the cases in here"

White nodded and walked back out to the truck, the large cases had been piled up into a small wall of dark green military crates. He took a crowbar that one of his men held out for him and he popped the padlock off of it with little effort. With one hoof he opened the case and pulled out one of three smaller boxes from inside and took it into the workshop and put it on a table next to a strangely shaped metal frame that Sokolov was fitting the electronics to. Sokolov opened up the box and took out a clay like substance with an orange tint, he put it into hollow sections in frame and connected the electrics to it before sealing the gap.

"Now all it needs is a test run"

"Is this going to work?"

"Oh yes it'll work, it just a matter of seeing how well it works. Have Raya bring me a test subject, someone disposable who wont be missed"

* * *

Nick and Judy slowly trudged through the headquarters as they headed to Claire's private office, as they were leading the investigation into Bogo's death they were required to give regular updates to her in order for her to be able to manage the agencies resources better. When they got to joining room to her office however the light was off and her secretary, a middle aged female poodle with extremely curly fur, was sat at her desk typing up a stack of reports. She stopped what she was doing and peeked over her monitor at the pair,

"Ah Nick and Judy, are you looking for the Director?"

"Yeah Julia, we have an update for her with regards to the Bogo case, is she here?"

"I'm afraid not, she's still at the hospital waiting on Agent Scratch"

"Darell? What happened?"

"You haven't heard? Agent Langdon found him in his apartment a couple of hours ago, he was attacked in the early hours of this morning"

Judy and Nick looked at her and at each other in shock, Nick pulled the pen drive out of his pocket and handed it over to Julia.

"Can you get this to Claire please, she wanted to see these as soon as she could"

"Certainly I can send them to her"

"Thanks"

The pair took off and ran towards Max's office. Julia picked up her desk phone and called Claire as she transferred the files from the pen drive to her computer. The phone rang a few times before Claire answered it,

"Director this is Julia, I have an update file from the Wildehopps's, they said you wanted it as soon as it was available?"

"Yes I did, can you send it to my phone?"

"One moment"

She typed away at the computer for a few moments,

"It's being sent to you now"

"And that's everything?"

"That's all they gave me"

"Are they still there?"

"No they took off once they heard about Agent Scratch, it seems they hadn't been informed"

"Things have been moving so fast I didn't have time to tell them, thank you Julia, send me any other updates that arrive even if I don't answer the call"

"Understood Director"

She put the phone down and carried on typing up her reports. In the hospital Claire had been moved away from the operating theatre to the waiting area against her will, she had protested when the ward matron told her she couldn't continue to wait there due to hospital policy but she gave up after a while as there was nothing she could do for Darell by arguing and so she eventually gave in. Around an hour and a half had passed since she had first told the other members of the security meeting that she wouldn't be attending until she knew Darell's condition and so she was being kept up to date via a secure messaging app that they used regularly. With the files from Julia having now transferred and unpackaged she began working her way through the hundreds of scene photos taken by Siân. She had heard about Siân from Vicki and had requested that it be her to take over the scene analysis as she had a reputation for being extremely thorough and right now that's what Claire needed. She carefully looked through every picture again and again and came to realisation that sank like a lead weight in her stomach. She quickly headed out of the waiting room and searched for a quiet corridor with few mammals about, when she was sure that there wasn't anyone around she dialled a number that wasn't in her phone and waited impatiently for it to be picked up, she was about to cancel the call and try a different number when she heard it connect and a distorted male voice spoke,

"Director Schwartzpelz, I hope you are aware that calling me out of hours has consequences"

"With all due respect screw your consequences sir, we have a serious problem Bogo's case is missing"

"What did he have on him?"

"A copy of everything we've implemented as well as procedures and scenario plans"

"What the hell was he doing being in possession of those!"

"We'd just finished the last briefing when he was attacked, knowing Bogo he didn't go to the precincts safe on the way home, probably thought he was secure in his house"

"One mammals fuck up has put everything at risk. I'll have to begin contingency plans"

"I think that's a little extreme sir"

"No Director I'm afraid it isn't"

The phone line went dead and Claire bit on the edge of her phone as sweat trickled down the side of her head, she was only brought back to reality by the call of a Doctor from behind her.

* * *

An hour after Max left the hospital a small group of mammals were gathered in one of the investigation rooms that Max had assigned for his team. While Liam was assembling the agents he had been busy gathering the every document on Carlos Raya that he could find, it was a substantial amount with every piece of evidence, surveillance and court preceding that he was involved in having been recorded and kept secured on the MBI servers in the Capital. Liam had chosen three other agents to join them, a young bull that had joined the ZBI in the wake of the bombing last year after having left the army after one tour of duty, a female zebra who had been with the agency for several years and who had an excellent track record and an elder rhino who was coming up to retirement who everyone agreed probably had the sharpest mind in the whole agency and had the knack for seeing connections that others didn't, Max felt almost out of place as he hadn't worked with any of them before but Liam had vouched for them and that was enough for him. Max handed out a hard copy of the documents to everyone before sitting on the edge of a table at the front of the room. The documents were thicker than a brick and would take a great deal of time to read through in finite detail but he was hopping that they could get the groundwork started quickly so they could catch whoever was responsible.

"Alright lets get this started. You all know who I am and what we're here for, I haven't had the opportunity to work with any of you yet, but Liam has and he speaks highly of all of you, we're going to skip on formalities here. We have a large task ahead of us and the Director wants this sorted out as quickly as possible, as I'm sure you all agree with. So far the only lead we have is a name that agent Scratch told me before he was hospitalised, Carlos Raya"

The young bulls brows rose sharply,

"You're shitting me"

"No Alex I'm not shitting you. Now we I'm sure your all aware Carlos Raya was imprisoned five years ago in a maximum security prison and is serving life with no parole, so it's doubtful that it's him, but it could be someone linked to his operations or connected to him in some other way. The folder you each have is a copy of every scrap of data I could find both from the public domain and the secured federal domains. Alex you and I need you to work our way through the documents, compile possible associates, locations, anything that could give us a lead. Lana you're good with forensics, chase up with Daniel from Vicki's lab and find out what he's discovered, then head to precinct one and see if Sergeant Higgins as uncovered anything. Gerald I want you to work with Liam, head back to Darell's apartment and see what you can find, talk to the old anteater living opposite and see if he can remember anything else."

Everyone nodded as they were given their assignments. As Max was about to dismiss them one of the clerical staff, a middle aged red vixen knocked on the door and opened it.

"Mr Langdon there's someone to see you outside your office"

"Who is it?"

"He insisted on telling you himself. Security have searched him, he's clean and is carrying a police shield but no ID"

"Alright I'll go find out who he is, you're all dismissed"

As they headed out of the room Liam told Gerald he'd meet him in the motor pool before he followed Max, his office was just down the hall and a large male elephant with coiled tusks was sat on a bench as he waited patiently, he was dark combat pants and a brown t-shirt that was pulled tight over his muscles. As they approached he got up to introduce himself but Liam beat him to it,

"Andrew long time no see"

"It's certainly been a while Liam"

The two shook paw and hoof before Liam introduced the elephant to Max,

"This is Andrew Mason, he's Captain of the SOG"

"SOG?"

Andrew took out his badge for Max to see, it looked similar to the ZPD's but it was silver instead of gold and had a sharper outline.

"Special Operations Group. We conduct low profile protection of high profile targets. Dignitaries, VIP escorts, facility protection, things that need to be guarded without drawing too much attention"

"OK, so what can I do for you Captain?"

"Perhaps we can speak in your office?"

The three of them went inside and Liam closed the door behind them, Max kept a clean but simple office with only what he needed on a daily basis on display, like the rest of the building it was completely modern with the furniture being plastic or metal and it made it look rather clinical and sterile. Max gestured to the seats and he sat on the one behind his desk as the others sat opposite him. Andrew put his hoof into the side pocket of his pants, pulled out a small brown envelope and put it on the desk,

"One of our facilities was attacked five hours ago, we lost eight officers"

"Bloody hell, you have my condolences"

"Thank you. When we realised something was wrong we secured the site and conducted a through search, that envelope was left in one of the storage rooms, it's addressed to you"

Max picked up the envelope and looked at it, it had his name and title on it as well as the address of the ZBI headquarters on it, as he turned it over he noticed that it had been ripped along one edge,

"You've opened it?"

"Only to ensure there wasn't anything dangerous inside"

As Max opened the envelope to look inside Liam asked,

"Which facility was hit?"

"The aerodrome in the meadow-lands district"

"Jesus Andrew that's a big problem"

Max stopped and looked at Liam,

"What's the problem with the aerodrome?"

"It's used to store items seized by the ZPD and ZBI that are deemed to dangerous to store in station lock-ups, weapons, drugs, chemicals, things like that. Was anything taken?"

"A dozen metal cases, each weighing 220 pounds"

"What was in them?"

"We don't know, they were brought in with a shipment of items about a week after the bombing last year. They were marked ultra violet clearance and were supposed to have been collected six months ago, but noone came to pick them up"

"It can't have been easy to move all those cases."

"They disabled our security cameras inside the aerodrome, but we have a couple hidden around the site that are unlisted and run on a separate system. From what we can tell there were six attackers all heavily armed, they took my guys with their pants around their ankles. They used some sort of truck to move the cases, looked like an old army surplus vehicle but we can't get a good view of it."

"We might be able to track that, got a copy of the CCTV for us?"

"I can have it forwarded to you"

Max tipped the envelope upside down and a disk fell out onto the table in a plastic sleeve, he picked it up and looked at it closely, there was no writing on the disc like there was on the envelope. He took it out of the sleeve and something caught his attention, he held the disc under his nose and sniffed it a couple of times,

"Sokolov"

Liam's eyes went wide,

"You sure?"

"Definitely"

He opened the drive of his computer and put the disc in, after a few seconds it began auto playing as Liam and Andrew stood behind him to watch it. The screen was black for a few seconds before it showed a mammal sat at a table in front of the camera in a black suit, his paws were resting on the table in front of him and were covered in black gloves, but it was the mask that gave away who it was they were looking at.

 _Hello Max, I trust this has made it to you without too much hassle. I decided to make this as a formal declaration to you that our little break has ended, it's time for me to continue on my mission and for that the kit gloves are coming off. There will be no respite and no leniency, it'll be like old times. But I'm willing to let the bad blood between us become water under the bridge if you agree to join me. I know the cell phone I left you last year is still in precinct ones evidence locker, keep it close to you, I'll be calling in three days for your answer._

"Holy Shit"

"You know this guy?!"

"It's a long story Captain, one I'm not going into. Claire needs to see this"

"You go talk to her and I'll get the team to focus on Darell for now and I'll set the groundwork for this. Andrew I'm going to need everything you've got on this as soon as possible"

"No problem, I'll give my tech guys a call and have it sent over"

* * *

Bellow the streets of the Capital Chuck had just exited the operations room where a team had been hard at work assembling intelligence information and detailed maps for what Chuck hoped would be a quick in and out mission, with so many inmates that had escaped the blacksite to try and track down it was going to be a difficult job to pull off but they had access to the best operatives in the country and if it was organised well it was possible that they could all be recaptured without anyone finding out what had happened. A large folder containing every aspect of the plan was under his arm and he walked straight over to Bills office that was situated just a few feet away from his. Like most officers in his position Bill had a personal assistant to manage meetings and such for him and he knew Chuck and Bill well, so when Chuck walked in and straight into Bills office he didn't even look up from his desk until he heard Chuck call out to him,

"Where's Bill, he was supposed to be meeting me here"

"Madam Secretary called him ten minutes ago, she wanted a face to face meeting with him for the quarterly update"

"Always something, I'm sure he won't mind me having some of his coffee while I wait, you want any?"

"No thank you sir I had some earlier"

"Suit yourself"

Chuck went into Bills office and dumped the folder on the desk as he headed over to the coffee maker, Bill was very materialistic and there was memorabilia from different deployments across his career as well as a number of military collectors items in various display cabinets lining the rooms walls. After using some of the worlds most expensive coffee that Bill was known for splashing out on to make his unknownth cup for the day Chuck sat down on Bills chair and looked around. It only took him a moment to spot a new blue file on the desk underneath a bunch of older looking files, curious he dug it out and looked at it, it was a folder for an operation that he hadn't heard of before and so he flicked it open. A short while later he left the room in a hurry, the assistant jovially called over

"How was the coffee sir?"

It took considerable effort to hide the worry in his voice but Chuck managed to hide it well enough,

"It was good, not good enough to pay what he does for it. If he comes back let him know I'm heading out for a while, need to make some adjustments"

"Very well sir"

As soon as he was out of the room he walked as wast as he could to the buildings exit and headed away, he needed to make a phone call urgently.

* * *

With renewed energy Nick and Judy ran down the hall from Claire's office and down the stairs to the main floor where the investigative offices and section leaders officers were. They ran between several agents as they went about their business and were very apologetic as they almost knocked an intern who was learning the ropes off her feat as she carried a stack of papers to their intended recipient. They didn't bother knocking on Max's office door and Judy, who was faster and more agile than Nick, flung the door open as she got to it before he did and the pair ran in to see Max putting on his overcoat.

"Judy. Nick. What's going on?"

"We just heard about Darell, what happened?"

Max fixed his coats collar and leant against his desk,

"He didn't show up for work this morning so I went to check on him, couldn't get an answer at his apartment but I caught the smell of blood so I kicked the door in. His partner is dead and I found him in the kitchen. He's in the hospital"

"How bad is it, is he going to be alright?"

"I don't know. Even if he survives his options are going to be limited, his legs and arms were completely skinned"

"Skinned..."

Nick and Judy looked at each other for a moment before Nick took over the conversation,

"You know we took over the investigation into Bogo's death. We found out this morning that he was skinned as well, his whole upper body"

"What time was he attacked?"

"00:30 roughly"

"That's only two hours before Darell was attacked. Go see Liam I think he's in room four and fill him in on what you found. Sounds to coincidental for there to be no link"

He grabbed a set of keys from his desk and headed to the door as he ushered the two of them as well,

"Where are you going Max?"

"I need to see Claire, Sokolov's back"

"You cant be serious!"

"I am serious, he sent us a warning video. We need to pool resources to find him but Claire needs to authorise it and the sooner the better. I'll talk to you guys later"

* * *

With Max having left to brief Claire on what had happened and there still being no word from them Nick and Judy spent the rest of the day with Liam and the small number of agents he had assembled as well as Captain Mason. With Gerald having visited Darell's apartment and Lana having brought back a copy of the initial forensic report they had a lot of information to trawl through, but it didn't take them long to find similarities between the two attacks. There was very little forensic evidence left behind, there was no sign of forced entry along with what was believed to be a similar model of knife used in both cases based on the lacerations. With the distance between the two locations and the times of the attacks it was deemed unlikely that it was the same mammal who attacked Bogo and Darell as it would take too long to get from one location to the other and carry out the attacks in the time-frame. After spending nearly five hours on the mountain of documents Liam could see that it was taking it's toll on Nick and Judy, the pair were really struggling to stay awake, usually it would irritate him but he knew that they had been up for almost two days straight and it was enough for him to call it,

"Nick, you and Judy go home and get some rest"

He tried his best to hide his yawn but Nick couldn't keep it suppressed.

"It's alright, we're good"

"No you're not, I know you want to figure this out but you are in no fit state to do so. Go home and get a few hours rest, if you feel up to it after that then feel free to come back, if not we'll see you tomorrow morning"

"Honestly Liam we can do a few more.."

"Go. Home. Don't make me haul your asses out of here when its plain to everyone that you're in dire need of sleep"

Nick was going to complain again but Judy put her paw on his arm and shook her head before sliding off her chair.

"We'll go home Liam, as much as we would like to stay Nick and I are struggling. Call us if you find out about Darell alright?"

"If I hear anything then you'll hear it, just get some rest"

The two of them grabbed their gear and headed down to the motor pool to where their car was parked and they headed back towards their apartment. It didn't take them long to get back from the office and Nick pulled their car into a reserved spot in a parking lot across the park from their apartment complex, the area was heavily built up with tower blocks and there was little space for residents to park their cars making what little space there was a premium. The park which the tower blocks were built around was rather substantial in size and the local government had put suggested plans for the park to be closed and a multi-storey parking lot to be built in it's place, but this was fiercely opposed by the residents as it was used daily by many of those living and working nearby to relax. As they passed through the park Nick and Judy could see several families with their young kits enjoying the school holidays as well as a number of pensioners and business mammals enjoying the sunshine. An old bear who was relaxing on a bench chuckled as they past him by as Judy was barely able to keep her eyes open and Nick was partially navigating her as they walked along the main path heading to their apartment. As the bear watched the couple walk away he could feel his phone vibrating in his coat pocket, his fingers weren't as nimble as they used to be but he managed to get it out in time to answer it, it was a number he didn't recognise,

"Hello?"

"Admiral Morra, this is Chuck Goldmane"

"Charles? It's good to hear from you, though it's not Admiral any more, I retired a few years ago remember"

There was a short laugh from the other side of the line

"You'll never retire, they'll find something to keep you involved"

"That's true, it's in the blood"

There was a moment of quiet before Morra asked,

"You aren't calling from your cell, I take it this isn't a social call"

"No I'm afraid not. I need some advice"

"My office was always open for you before, this is no different"

"Thanks. There was an incident recently that the brass wants kept under lock and key, one of my colleagues is in charge of keeping it that way but what he has planned worries me."

"How so?"

"What he's planned goes far beyond what we, what I, would consider to be justifiable. Now I can see an alternative option, but it would mean the possibility of defying my orders and I'm unsure of what to do"

"In your career you've come across situations like this before, what makes this one different?"

"It involves Operation Landslide"

The bear leant back on the bench and looked up at the clear sky for a moment as he sighed, his thoughts took him back to a conversation he had had with one of his newly promoted subordinates years ago.

"This is Bills idea isn't it"

"...Yes it is"

"Figures, Landslide was his brain child, and a dangerous one at that. Are you on a secure line?"

"always"

"Then give me the rundown"

Nick yawned in exhaustion as the lift opened up onto their floor, the two of them trudged halfway down the corridor the their front door and Nick fumbled through his pockets to get his keys when the door opened from the inside. The elderly form of his mother stood on the other side smiling warmly at them,

"welcome back, you two look exhausted"

Nick snorted,

"Thanks for that"

"Well it's the truth, I don't sugar coat anything, though you look like you could do with some"

She patted his stomach which had no fat on it, with all the time they spent in the field they had all the exercise they needed to stay in shape. Judy took off her jacket and hung it on a hook on the wall,

"Marian how are James and Violet, have they behaved?"

Marian's face fell a little,

"They've behaved well today, I took them to the market and we had lunch out at the mall..."

Nick put his arm around her shoulder,

"What is it Mom, what's got you down?"

"When we were at the mall the lunchtime news was playing on the big TV they have hanging from the ceiling, Bogo's death came on. James and Violet are too young to understand but they're inquisitive and have been asking about it ever since, I didn't know what to say to them"

"I was afraid they'd see before we got to talk to them. We'll have a chat with them, I wish we'd had more time to think of something"

"We rarely do Nick, it was the same when your father died"

Marian gave him a hug,

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need me, good luck"

Marian walked slowly through the side door into the kitchen, she was very old now and struggling to get about. She was incredibly stubborn and when Nick had suggested that she consider the idea of moving to a home for the elderly she almost bit his tale off, but as the months went by even she had to acknowledge that she couldn't continue as she was. So when Nick and Judy got promoted they moved to a larger apartment and invited her to live with them, she agreed and insisted on contributing towards the running of the household so instead of Nick and Judy paying for childcare Marian looked after the kits, a not so simple task for a fox getting on in her years but she managed mostly. She sat quietly in the kitchen and listened as the two tried to carefully approach Bogo's death with James and Violet, she couldn't help but think of how she had to do the same for Nick when his father died in a traffic accident when he was five, she pulled a pendant from around her neck and held it tightly as she hoped it would go well.

In the park a stern look had built up on Morra's face as Chuck went into more details about Bills plan to deal with Sokolov and the escaped inmates before things got out of paw, the more he heard the less he liked it and the more resentful he became of himself for putting Bill forward for promotion while he was still in charge,

"Is he a fool, does he not know the consequences of this?"

"That's why I don't know what to do"

"I think.."

He paused as two police officers on foot patrol passed him by, they took a quick glance at him but quickly lost interest and continued talking about whatever it was they had been conversing about before they passed him. Once he was sure they were out of hearing range he continued in a more hushed tone,

"I think you already know the answer to that, you just needed a little push from an old friend. I still have a few connections in good standing that could assist you should you need them, you know how to get hold of me. I wish you luck on this one Charles, you're going to need it"

"Thank you sir"

Morra ended the call and sat dumbfounded for a minute as the conversation sank in, once he was back with the world he called a quick dial number on his cell,

"Bring the car to the entrance, I need to make an unscheduled stop"

He ended the call and struggled to get to his feet, his knees were weak with arthritis and it was slow going as he set off towards the main road entrance to the park when he heard the screeching of tyres. He looked up to see a dishevelled looking mammal get kicked out of the side door of a transit van before it screeched away down the road at speed, Morra couldn't make out what it was but the mammal was clearly panicked and it ran towards the officers who had dashed towards him as they saw the van. The mammal dropped to it's knees and was coughing violently as families took hold of their kits who were looking on with interest as others who were concerned started to move away from it. The officers were struggling to calm the mammal down who was making horrendous noises as it continued having a coughing fit.

In the apartment Judy was hugging James and Violet tightly as they sobbed against her after they had managed to explain, in a manner that they would understand, that Bogo nor his family were coming back. Nick was stood next to them rubbing their heads with his paws when he heard a commotion outside through their open window, he mouthed _I'll shut it_ to Judy who nodded at him, he closed the window and tried to lighten the mood a little,

"How about we"

He was cut off by a bright flash and deafening boom that shattered the window sending shards of glass spraying into his face. He yelled as he fell backwards onto the floor with his paws covering his eyes, he was writhing on the floor and grunting in pain. Judy yelled out.

"Nick! Marian get in here!"

Marian came into the room as quickly as she could and Judy handed James and Violet over to her, she then ran over to Nick and took hold of his arms, car alarms and screams could be heard from outside as panic took hold on the streets bellow.

"Let me see Nick, please let me see"

She managed to pull his paws away and was horrified to see blood and glass all over his face. His voice was trembling as he spoke,

"I cant see Judy, I cant see"


	23. (Arc 2) Chapter 5

AN - So i have finally moved house and managed to get my internet set up only to have my computer die on me, I'm waiting for another one to be delivered but it may take a little while as some of the components are not in stock so i did this little filler on my phone to show that i haven't died or given up on the story. Hopefully things will be back to normal with the schedule soon.

* * *

Almost as soon as she had come to her senses after the unexpected explosion shattered the windows spraying shards of glass into Nicks face Judy had yelled at Marian to take James and Violet out of the apartment, she didn't know if it was safe in the building, she also didn't want them around to see Nick. Nick was writhing in agony as blood ran down his face, she had to fight against him in order to see his injury as his grasping it instinctively as he tried to ease the pain, when she did manage to pull his paws away her heart jumped up into her throat, there were shards of glass sticking out of his face around his eyes and it was bleeding profusely. She grabbed the first aid kit that they kept in one of the cabinets in the living room and yanked the top open as she began rummaging for padding to help stop the bleeding. Nick grimaced in pain and padded his paw around next to him and managed to get hold of Judy's knee, he struggled to ask through a very wavery voice,

"How..How bad is it?"

She took hold of his paw and squeezed it, she bit her lip as she looked at the severity of the wounds.

"Not good Nick, I have to stop the bleeding, try and stay still"

"Easy for you to say, you don't feel like a dart board"

He smiled a little but it faded instantly as the act forced some of the glass deeper into his flesh and made him grit his teeth in pain. She tore open a pack of bandages and put a large absorbent pad designed to make it easier to apply bandages to large open wounds, she placed them on his chest as she took a sachet out of the bog and tore the corner off,

"Stay still I'll be back in a second"

She bolted into the kitchen and jumped up onto the kitchen counter, she could hear the screams of panic from the other residents of the apartment complex as they ran through the building towards the exits as she grabbed a wooden spoon out of her utensil pot and dashed back to Nick as fast as she could, he was starting to shake but she couldn't tell if it was shock or something more severe, but she knew she had to stop the bleeding quickly.

"Bite on this"

She put the handle of the spoon in his mouth and he bit loosely on it to keep it in place, it was difficult to understand him but he managed to mumble through the grit teeth,

"I'm not going to like this am I?"

"No you wont, i'm sorry Nick"

"Do it"

She poured the contents of the large sachet over his wounds, it was made up of grey granules about the size of a small grain of rice that was mixed with a blue powder, and as soon as it hit his open wounds it started to fizz as it expanded and coagulated the blood to seal the wounds, Nick bit down hard on the handle and whined as it felt like his skin was on fire, Judy had to fight against him to stop him from grasping at his face. The process of sealing the wound took only a minute but to the both of them it felt like hours were passing, but soon the coagulant had done it's job and Nicks struggling stopped as he whimpered from the pain as he breathed heavily. He opened his mouth and let the spoon fall out, sirens could be heard close by as Judy picked up the padding and bandage,

"You're doing well Nick, I just need to put the bandage on"

He simply nodded, the agony of the powder had taken any kind of verbal response out of him for the moment. As carefully as she could Judy packed padding over the coagulant and wrapped his face in bandages leaving enough uncovered for him to open his jaw which also had a nasty cut on it, but it wasn't bleeding like the rest of his face was so she left it alone for now. She helped him to sit up so she could tie the bandage at the back of his head before grabbing the cordless home phone, she dialled 911 and put the phone on speaker, it rang for a couple of seconds before three ascending tones played and a pre-recorded message began running,

" _Due to a high volume of calls this service is currently unavailable, please hold as we try to connect you"_

The ascending tones played again and the message repeated,

"Shit"

Judy went over to what was left of the window overlooking the park, the glass had been completely shattered except for a few pieces in the lower corners and the frame was buckled, in the middle of the park where a group of young adult mammals had been having a barbecue was a sizeable hole, she could see a number of bodies as well as dozens of injured mammals lying on the ground or trying to get away from the hole any way they could. The first emergency service vehicles, mostly police, were beginning to arrive as some of the cars that were parked in the lot that they had parked in were burning in the background. She covered her mouth with her paw and shook her head in disbelief at the scene, after the bombing last year she had hopped that she had seen the last of this but it looked like it was starting all over again. She spotted a fast response ambulance arrive and went over to Nick, she tucked her arm under his and around his back,

"There's an ambulance outside Nick, think you can walk downstairs if I guide you?"

"I don't think we have a choice"

He was a bit uneasy as she helped him get onto his feet as the blast had disorientated him but after a moment of her keeping him steady with an arm wrapped around him he managed to grasp the edge of one of the book cases in the living room.

"Lets go"

feeling along the edge of the book case and wall with one paw and holding tightly to Judy with the other they slowly managed to get to the open front door when one of their neighbours, a raccoon in his late fifties almost barrelled into them as he was trying to enter the apartment as they came out. He saw Nick and his eyes almost bulged out of his head,

"Oh christ are you two alright?"

"We will be when we can get to the hospital, can you help me get him downstairs?"

"Yeah no problem"

He took Nicks other arm and wrapped it over his shoulder so that he was flanked each side,

"What are you doing here Frank? You should be away from here where its safer"

"I couldn't, me and Charlotte bumped into Marion and the kits. Charlotte's taking them to our sons a few miles away. You two must be one of the last ones in the building, I haven't seen anyone else leave"

"Couldn't leave straight away, Nicks injuries were too bad. Thanks for helping us"

"You two helped me and Charlotte out of nasty things in the past, no way I could leave you two here"

The three of them avoided the elevator as it had gone into an emergency lock-down after someone activated the buildings fire alarm and so they headed to the stairwell that ran through the central core of the apartment tower. With them being on the seventh floor it was going to take them some time to get down to the ground floor, but they pushed on and stepped into the stairwell. The door to the stairwell squeaked as it closed behind them, it was a heavy and tight fit as it was designed to contain fires in the event of an emergency but it made it obvious to anyone nearby that the door had been used. From around the corner a mammal pocked their head around the corner to make sure the coast was clear, with noone around and with the only sound form the building being the fire evacuation alarm they quickly dashed down the hall and into the Wildehopps apartment, they followed the signal from a small electronic device in their paw and found the cell phone that Judy had forgotten she had left on the side counter in the living room when she had come home with Nick not long ago. The mammal quickly took the back of the case off, took out the SIM card and put it into their device, a progress bar rapidly filled up along the top and as soon as it was full they put the SIM back in Judy's phone, replaced the cover and left as quickly as they could. They went out onto the stairwell and dashed past Judy and Frank as they helped Nick down the stairs, the three of them paid no notice to the mammal in casual clothes as they dashed past them, out the front door of the building and disappeared into the crowded streets bellow.

Nick Judy and Frank exited their apartment building to a scene of absolute chaos, the usually peaceful park had turned into a warzone with those mammals that could still move running as fast as they could to wherever they though would be safe as ZPD first responders tried desperately to treat the wounded with whatever supplies they had in their cruisers as only one ambulance was on scene. The wailing of sirens in the distance signalled the approach of more help but Judy was very worried about Nick, as they had made their way down the stairs she had noticed his breathing wavering which wasn't a good sign. They struggled towards the ambulance as two more ambulances arrived, Judy tried to flag one of them down but it headed straight past her and drove straight into the park to where the more seriously injured were, she could see behind the ambulance on the other side of the park where the car lot was a pillar of smoke was rising into the sky,

"Where's your car Judy?"

"Over there"

"Ah crap, how the fuck are we getting to the hospital now?"

Several police cars raced into the area around the park as they looked around for any options when one of the cars that had just past them screeched to a halt before reversing at speed and stopping next to them. The drivers door opened and a lion got out and ran to them,

"Christ are you guys alright?"

"No Delgato we aren't, Nick's been hurt bad"

Delgato opened the back door and picked Nick up in his arms before laying him down carefully in the back, Judy didn't need to wait to be told and she went around the other side and jumped in the back as well, she used her lap as a cushion for Nicks head and she wrapped the seatbelt around him best she could to stop him sliding on the plastic rinse clean seats fitted to the back of the patrol cars. As Delgato got in the drivers seat he called over to Frank,

"You coming as well?"

"No I got to get back to my family, Judy call me when you can"

"I will, Thank you Frank"

Delgato strapped himself in and made a quick U turn before speeding off back the way he came towards the highway, he could get them to the nearest hospital in a few minutes, much faster than waiting for an ambulance to arrive for them.

* * *

It was late afternoon on the Hopps farm and Stu and Bonnie were relaxing with some of their older children who had brought their own children along with them for an impromptu family get together. Bonnie was busy preparing a large meal for everyone with the help of some of Judy's litter mates while Stu was moving some furniture around with some of his sons to accommodate the larger than average group size that was visiting while his grand-kits were watching a cartoon DVD that one of them had brought with them. After moving the last piece of furniture, a large couch that could fit eight at once, he flopped down onto it and dabbed the fur around his forehead with a cloth, he and Bonnie were getting on a bit and he was starting to find some tasks more tiring than he would like to so he was grateful when one of his sons, who looked a spitting image of Stu as a youngster, handed him a glass of fresh carrot juice that had been chilling in the fridge. He took a large gulp of it before letting out a satisfied sigh,

"Thanks Jimmy. Hows the auto shop?"

"It's doing good, we merged with Travis's auto shop last month and now we're getting more customers than either of us had individually"

"That boy has always had a knack for engines"

"He's got a good head on his shoulders pa, we'll both do well out of this"

Jimmy looked down by his side as he felt his pants leg being tugged and saw his young daughter looking up at him, he picked her up and held her in the crutch of his arm,

"What's wrong Jessica?"

She pointed behind him to the TV and saw that the screen was frozen in place with pixilated lines going across the screen and distorting the image.

"I'll sort it out sweetie. DVD players on the brink again pa"

"I'll have to call Marvin out to have a look at it"

"You should get a new one, or change to a Blue-Ray player"

"Maybe on day"

Jimmy walked over to the TV and was careful to avoid stepping on any of the other kits paws as he walked, put Jessica down next to her cousin and he crouched down to look at the player. He pressed a few buttons but nothing happened,

"I think it's actually bust this time"

He pulled the cable out the back and the player shut down, only to be met with various aww sounds as the kits were unhappy that the cartoon was gone,

"Don't worry kit's I'll try and fix it quickly for you"

As he looked for the override button to eject the disc the TV had reverted back to the last channel that was playing before the player was turned on, it was a cooking program from a bunny burrow TV station that Bonnie had been watching when they had all arrived a few hours earlier. Jimmy wasn't paying attention to the TV until he heard Stu mumbling about where he had put his glasses, he only wore glasses when he watched TV with subtitles and so he glanced over to see what Stu thought was interesting. Across the bottom of the screen inside a red banner was a scrolling text, _Major incident declared in Zootopia's Downtown District, large number of casualties_.

"Pa where's the remote?"

"On the stand next to the TV paper"

Jimmy shoved the TV paper's aside till he found the remote buried underneath them,

"Daddy where's the cartoons?"

"Just a minute sweetie, daddy needs to check something first"

He quickly flicked through the channels until he found the 24 hour ZNN channel, Peter Moosebridge was in his signature suit and was in the middle of a sentence when Jimmy switched to him.

"Are still unknown at this time. We now go live to our anchor Fabienne Growely who is at one of the cordon entrances, Fabienne can you hear me?"

The screen switched to show the female snow leopard anchor who had a dark red overcoat wrapped around her, the main road behind her running through the district had tall office skyscrapers either side of the street, a symphony of sirens could be heard wailing all around as a group of officers from the ZPD were yelling orders at mammals to step back as they set up a roadblock. Dozens of mammals could be seen behind the cordon being guided by other officers towards the roadblock.

"Yes Peter I can hear you. As you may be able to see behind me I am stood next to the Lemming Brothers headquarters in the Downtown District. About two hundred yards further down the road in the heart of the residential section for the district a large explosion happened about thirty minutes ago."

"Do we know what happened, what caused the explosion?"

"We've been unable to get close to see for ourselves, but we have been able to speak to eyewitnesses who have been allowed to leave the police lock-down, they are saying that a disruptive mammal was approached by two ZPD patrol mammals after he acted suspiciously and moments later there was a very big explosion, we haven't been able to confirm anything yet though"

The end of her sentence was almost drowned out by the the siren of two SWAT trucks as they blasted past her and further into the cordoned off area,

"As you can see the police and other emergency response has been massive, while we were setting up we saw upwards of thirty ambulances and a number of fire-trucks arriving"

"And how are the police dealing with this, have we been able to get any statements?"

"We're still waiting for an official response but some of our sources have told us that this is being treated as a terrorist incident, if it is it would mark almost a year to the day of the bombing last year that claimed the lives of over six hundred mammals"

The screeching of tires in the background made her turn around, she quickly stepped aside

"Dave focus on that"

The camera zoomed in as two unmarked cruisers raced down a side street, a third one screeched to a halt at the end of the road and four officer got out with assault rifles, the camera zoomed in again and it caught the officers yelling to someone to get on the floor, they repeated the order again and again. Suddenly the yelling stopped as the officers opened fire down the side street.


	24. (Arc 2) Chapter 6

The last few hours had been very busy for Max, after having Andrew Mason turn up unannounced at the ZBI headquarters and confirming that Sokolov was indeed still around as well as showing that a large number of an unknown item had been stolen from a secure facility, he had gone to the hospital where Darell was being treated as he knew that was where he would find Claire. Claire had arranged for a protection detail for Darell who was in a medically induced coma as his injuries were considered too severe for him to remain conscious during his treatment, he had managed to pry her away from the staff at the hospital for a few minutes and he brought her up to speed on what they had found since he had spoken to her last as well as showing her Sokolov's video. Before the video had even ended she had pulled out her phone and had quick-dialled a number, her call was very brief but it was obvious that whoever she had called was important as she had almost dragged him out of the hospital to her car in the parking lot and they had left immediately with her driving. They had quickly stopped off at the office for her to get a hard copy of Andrews report before heading out again without letting the rest of the investigations team know that they had even been in the building. They had passed through parts of the city that he wasn't yet familiar with before she pulled into the parking lot of a large red bricked factory that looked like it had been here for a few years, the chimney stacks were billowing steam into the sky and there were dozens of mammals in boiler suits going about their business loading vans with boxes while others unloaded large trucks that were bringing in raw materials. Max looked up at the sign on the side of the building,

"Zivo Paintworks?"

"It's the largest producer of industrial paint in the state, and it's also one of our most successful fronts"

"Front for what?"

"You'll see soon enough, very few mammals get to see what you are about to, I didn't until Jack died"

She drove through the parking lot and into an open roller shutter entrance next to the loading bay, it lead to a steep ramp that went underground for about fifty feet before it opened up into a large parking lot that had a lot of cars parked here already, it didn't take more than a couple of seconds for Max to spot the guards with automatic weapons hidden about the place. Claire parked the unmarked cruiser in an empty spot near a set of large metal double doors and the pair got out. She took her ID out of her jacket pocket and swiped it against a reader next to the door, there was a slight clicking noise and the doors automatically opened inwards to reveal a tiled corridor that lead under the main body of the factory.

"This entrance seems easy to find, don't the factory workers come down out of curiosity?"

"Everyone on site is an agent for one company or another, they get rotated out every couple of months and they all know not to come looking"

"One or another, how many agencies are working here?"

"Most of them. This is a Command Operations Centre, primarily meant for large scale emergencies, there's one in every major city"

"So why am I here? I'm sure having an alien in one of your governments little secrets is bad for business so to speak, untrustworthy and all that"

She stopped and turned to look at him with shock,

"You know I trust you Max"

"You do, I just don't get that feeling from some of the others, don't forget I found tracking devices in my personal belongings four months ago, someone in the know doesn't trust me. Places like this where we cant operate in the open make me feel uncomfortable, especially when I don't know who to expect"

"Well be on your best behaviour, my bosses boss is going to be here"

"Who's above Joey, Secretary of Defence?"

"No, the person we're going to be meeting is above that. Things aren't as clear cut as the public believes. Oh and do me a favour"

She placed her good paw on his arm and asked him with genuine care,

"Please stay quiet unless they ask you a question, I don't want them to have any reason to act against us"

He gave her a look of concern, but she turned and opened the double doors that they had reached before he could ask her what she meant by that. The door opened into a small room with three guards in uniforms that had no markings on them, two of them stood either side of a metal detector while the third one was sat at an X-ray machine that looked like a more modern version of those used at airports. Claire put her document bag on the X-ray machines conveyor, emptied her pockets into a plastic tray and put her gun in there as well before stepping through the machine. As she did it beeped and one of the guards waved a hand held detector over her, it beeped when it went over her left arm and she rolled up her shirt sleeve to show them her prosthetic to the guards who seemed satisfied. Once she had been cleared by the guards Max followed what she did, the machine beeped when he went through as well and the guards scanned him, the guards looked confused when they found the source of the beeping to be the collar around his neck but Claire gave them a stern look and they didn't ask. One of them spoke into their earpiece and the door behind them opened up to reveal a busy control room that was inset into the floor so that you walked around the outside of it, much larger than the one that the ZBI had when he had first arrived and it was packed with mammals hard at work. A female wolf with a dark suit with no markings other than a gold lapel badge in her collar button hole was stood looking at them,

"Director Schwartzpelz everyone is waiting for you, if you could follow me please"

The wolf lead them around the outside of the control room to a set of double doors flanked by guards who didn't move an inch when she opened the door and gestured for Claire and Max to enter, as soon as they did the door was closed behind them. The room they were in was long and it had a table in the centre that ran almost the full length of the room, it had a large display screen build into the top that had several maps displayed on it that looked like they were of different parts of the city and sat around the table were dozens of mammals. There were twelve seats actually at the table with two of them empty while there was a second row behind them that were full of mammals that looked like they were support staff for those sat in the first row. Max followed Claire as she sat in one of the empty chairs at the table, he took up a seat to her rear left as she began emptying documents from her case onto the table, he knew from previous meetings that if he sat on her left he was usually able to read what was written as with it being her prosthetic she barely moved it.

"It's nice of you to join us Director. We've been busy discussing how to deal with Bogo's fuck-up, I would have thought that would have been important enough for you to attend"

The Bobcat who was sat in the middle of the table was looking at her with obvious disdain, Claire kept her cool,

"My apologies, I was ensuring that an official and witness was kept safe"

"Well I guess that the lives of the rest of the city's citizens means very little to you then. Are you sure your priorities are in the right order Director?"

"How I run my agency is non of your concern Mr Simmons, and my priorities as you put it are why i'm here now"

"So you turn up when you want is that it?"

The anger in Claire's face was evident and she looked like she was about to explode at the bobcat when someone cleared their throat loudly, everyone turned to look at the head of the table and Max had to raise himself slightly in his chair to be able to see who it was. Sat at the head of the table was an elderly looking lynx who's fur was almost completely white from age, he was in a loose fitting suit with the top unbuttoned and he had no tie on unlike the rest of the mammals. He picked up a glass of water next to him and took a sip before calmly saying,

"Mr Simmons, we are all aware that you are passionate about protecting the lives of the citizens of our country and this city especially. However, I must advise you not to judge any of the other heads by the manner in which you conduct yourself, all of you present here were chosen because of your particular skills and abilities, chosen by me might I add"

Simmons opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself for a moment as he thought carefully about what to say,

"I understand overseer, I apologise for my outburst"

"Accepted. Director Schwartzpelz, we have deliberated for the last few hours, and have decided that we cannot continue with the security protocols as they are. With the documents missing every security procedure designed over the last year has been compromised, and I believe that you have brought us something that drives home the reason why we need to cooperate with each other, correct?"

"Yes Sir"

Claire took her phone out of her pocket and handed it to one of the members of the lynx's entourage as he walked over to her, he took the phone and hooked it up to a large display monitor on the wall and played the video. It lasted only a minute but it was obvious that everyone wasn't taking the news that Sokolov was back well. Once it had ended her phone was returned to her and she handed a file to the mammal to take to the lynx, it was placed in front of him and he took a pair of glasses out of a case before starting to flick through it as he skim read it,

"This is a report from the Special Operations Group leader Captain Andrew Mason of the ZPD. It details the attack on their aerodrome storage facility and everything that they know so far"

One of the other mammals at the table, a female moose looked at Claire with a furrowed brow,

"I wasn't aware that the SOG had a facility at the aerodrome"

A male cheetah sat opposite her answered,

"It's not listed on any of the ZPD's non monetary assets, only those who worked for the SOG know about it, we wanted it kept off the records in case we needed to store something away from prying eyes"

"Such as?"

"Anything deemed too dangerous. Drugs, guns, anything that would draw attention in any great quantity. We couldn't have a temptation to attack a police station for financial gain by an organised crime group like we had thirty years ago"

The lynx closed the report file and placed it on the table in front of him. He took off his glasses and put them in his breast pocket.

"Mr Arlington"

The cheetah sat up and gave the lynx his full attention,

"Yes Sir?"

"In Captain Masons report it states that a number of metal cases were taken from a G5 cage."

"That's correct sir, I saw a copy of the report before coming here"

"Eight officers dead and Bogo's ID card used to gain access, but nothing taken except for the cases in G5"

"Yes sir"

"What was in G5?"

"I don't know sir"

"Can you find out please, with all haste. If Sokolov broke into the aerodrome for a specific item I want to know what it is"

The cheetah pointed behind him to one of his subordinates who quickly took note of the lynx's request.

"I'll find out as soon as physically possible sir"

"See that you do. Now it would appear that we have a guest with us today. Mr Langdon, I trust that you are well"

"I am Mr?"

"My title is overseer. I am unsure of what the Director has told you about what happens here so I'll give you a quick oversight. We are the collective intelligence organisations that protect this city and the rest of the country from threats to our security. Everyone here answers to me and to me alone, and as such everything that is discussed here is classified at the highest level. I've been told you were in the military from where you come from so I don't need to tell you what kind of punishment awaits you should you release any information without my authorisation, are we clear?"

"Crystal"

"Very good, I asked the Director to bring you with her as I want to ask you a question. The investigation conducted by the ZBI into the whereabouts of Sokolov over the last year have culminated in you finding a truck filled with chemical weapons that are inoperable, we know that Sokolov had intended to attack this city and that he was beaten to it by the late Major Neighland who was killed by you. My question to you is this, given what you know about Sokolov and hiss known movements since arriving in this world what is time frame we are looking at before his first attack, and what is the likely to be the nature of the attack?"

Max sat quiet for a moment as he stared at the lynx, although the old mammal looked fragile the way with which he spoke and his body language reminded Max of his superiors from back home, he didn't like them and he didn't think he would like this guy either but it was plain to see that the rest of the mammals either respected him or feared him.

"Given what I know about Sokolov, having chased him for several years, you can expect the first attack to be any day now. He doesn't hang around and once he has made it known that he is about he will act before his window of opportunity has a chance to close. As to the nature of the attack I can't be sure, but I don't think it would be another chemical one"

"Why not?"

"The ZBI have every supplier of the chemical components needed to make the stuff monitored twenty four seven. Nobodies bought anything in any significant size to raise a flag. Personally I think he's going to try something else, but whatever it is will be a statement"

The lynx sat back in his chair and looked at the ceiling for a few moments as he thought, nobody dared say anything else and Claire turned and gave Max a smile like she was happy with what he said when there was the buzzing of someone's cell phone vibrating. The lynx didn't even look back down as the bobcat quickly dug his paw into the inner pocket of his jacket to stop his cell from ringing, he was staring at the screen when the lynx said in a monotone voice like a parent having to repeat something for a millionth time to a child.

"Mr Simmons need I remind you to turn your phone off during meetings"

"I'm sorry sir but you need to see this"

He got up out of his chair and walked around to the TV, he took the remote off the side and pressed a button on it, the TV flickered to life and it was showing the ZNN 24 hour news channel. Fabienne Growely was stood next to a police cordon that was guarded by patrol officers with assault rifles in paw, a scrolling banner across the bottom of the screen read _explosion in downtown Zootopia, unknown number of casualties_. Sirens were wailing in the background as officers were shouting at mammals who were trying to see behind the cordon to stay back. Air horns blared as two SWAT trucks blasted past her and further into the cordoned off area,

"As you can see the police and other emergency response has been massive, while we were setting up we saw upwards of thirty ambulances and a number of fire-trucks arriving"

Fabienne was talking with Peter Moosebridge who was at the ZNN studio,

"And how are the police dealing with this, have we been able to get any statements?"

"We're still waiting for an official response but some of our sources have told us that this is being treated as a terrorist incident, if it is it would mark almost a year to the day of the bombing last year that claimed the lives of over six hundred mammals"

The screeching of tires in the background made her turn around, she quickly stepped aside

"Dave focus on that"

The camera zoomed in as two unmarked cruisers raced down a side street, a third one screeched to a halt at the end of the road and four officers got out with assault rifles. The camera zoomed in again and it caught the officers yelling to someone to get on the floor, they repeated the order again and again. Suddenly the yelling stopped as the officers opened fire down the side street. Several shots rang out before there was a deafening boom that sent the cars flying backwards as a wall of shrapnel and smoke poured out of the side street. The feed from the news channel ended and there were murmurs around the room. The lynx tapped his paw against the table to get everyone attention,

"This is what we are here for, this is why we do what we do. Director Schwartzpelz you are the face of the ZBI, get down there and take control of the situation and get me anything we can use. The rest of you get on damage control, shits just hit the fan"


	25. (Arc 2) Chapter 7

Max followed Claire as she quickly shoved her files into her case and ran to the parking lot, he barely had enough time to run around to the passengers side and get in before she spun the car around and headed out of the factories grounds. It wasn't until she reached the highway roughly a mile down the road that she put the unmarked cruisers lights and sirens on and she started to force her way through the traffic, the scene of the attack was halfway across the city and with the traffic being as heavy as it was due to rush hour it would take them at least half an hour if not longer to get there. Max turned the agency radio on and there were calls from agents who were already responding to the scene, they both recognised one of the voices and Claire breathed a sigh of relief,

"Sounds like Liam's taken charge for now, he's more than competent to sort this out "

"It's in good paws then"

Max looked at Claire as she waited with growing frustration for a big rig truck to move out the way for them to pass, he could see the cogs turning in her head as she listened to the radio and tried to assess the best way to deal with what was happening.

"What was that back there?"

Her brow furrowed for a moment as his questioning through her off her train of thought,

"What was what?"

"That place, that meeting. Who the hell are these people, and that Lynx, everyone looks terrified of him"

"He's an important figure"

"So who is he?"

"I don't know"

"You don't know?"

""I don't. When I took over from Jack Director Joey brought me here, one of the conditions of me keeping this position is that I work with the committee and for the Lynx. He only goes by the title of overseer"

"No name, no uniform. Sounds like a spook to me. What's with the command centre, no way that's new"

"It's not, it's been there a long time it just gets updated"

"They look like their monitoring a lot of mammals, a lot of places on their maps are from where TUSK hit but I don't recognise some of the symbols"

"Their tracking markers, they monitor a lot of suspects at all times"

"So is this where we were getting a lot of our intell?"

"Some of it, they helped fill in the blanks"

Max snorted and bit his lip for a minute before asking,

"Are they following me?"

"Wha..Why do you think that?"

"Those trackers I found, the guys in our labs said they were sophisticated and not something you can get on the civilian market, no identifying markers or serial numbers on them, nothing to lead to a user. Sounds a lot like something a secretive group would use don't you think"

Claire didn't answer, she looked like she was going to say something but as soon as she saw Max's face she clamped her jaw shut,

"They did didn't they, it was their gear I found"

"Max"

"It was, and you fucking knew it"

"Max I"

"Don't even think of lying to me Claire, I can see the guilt in your face. When did you find out?"

Before she could answer he pointed one of his fingers close to her face so she could see it out the corner of her eye while she was driving,

"Think carefully before you answer"

There was quiet for a few moments before she mumbled,

"I knew all along"

Max's eyes went wide and he looked at her with a stunned look that was quickly turning to anger,

"You what?"

"I knew all along"

"You gotta be kidding me"

"I didn't have much choice, the Overseer said"

"That fucking lynx, I was right not to like that guy I ought to knock his teeth out"

"Max please listen to me. With what happened with Sokolov, and with you going off reservation when you killed Victor and Angie, it made a lot of mammals in high places worried. They thought you may end up like him"

"So my hunting him for years, not to mention every minute I've been here, means nothing to them?"

"They don't know what you've done before coming here, as far as they're concerned its all made up to cover your tracks"

"I. Am. Not. Sokolov!"

"I know that, but they don't. They haven't seen you like I have, like our team has, they didn't want to take the chance. The committee wanted to lock you up so they could find a way to kill Sokolov easily, I showed them all the help that you given us and I put my neck out for you. All I could do to persuade them to leave you out of jail was to have you monitored"

"They're worried about me being their enemy then locking me up is the worst thing they can do"

He kicked the foot well of the car and slumped back in his seat as he rested his chin on his paw.

"So that's why you insisted I come with you everywhere, so you could _monitor_ me"

"I didn't see another way out. I didn't want to see any harm come to you and I still don't"

"I'm used to being watched Claire, it happened every day back home and it happened when Jack was alive""

"Then what are you angry at?"

"Because you didn't tell me! Since I came here I have trusted you, admittedly at first I was reluctant but over this last year I trusted you. You and I have been on the front line, when the shit hits the fan all you have to rely on is the trust in your colleagues. You lied to my face, covered up the truth. How can I trust you now when you so blazingly tried to keep me in the dark?"

The radio went off again with Liam calling out for any commanders on the net, Max picked up the mic before Claire could say anything and responded,

"This is special advisor Langdon, the Director and I are en-route. ETA 30 minutes"

He hooked the mic back on its stand and gave Claire a disgusted look out of the corner of his eye before staring out of the window, even from where they were they could see smoke in the distance from the second explosion. Claire was lost for words, it was the first time that Max had snapped at her like that, and he had never looked at her like that before. She needed to think about how to fix this but for now she had bigger concerns, she put her foot down and hurried to the scene.

* * *

As they came down the off ramp from the highway they were directed by local officers who had cleared a route for arriving emergency services. Claire continued to drive at speeds well over the limit as they passed where Fabienne Growely had been reporting from, which was now inside of an extended cordon that covered at least eight city blocks. The side street where the second blast happened was blocked by fire trucks as they tackled a roaring blaze that was billowing out thick black smoke. She didn't slow down until she spotted Liam's cruiser among others from the ZBI parked next to two ZPD mobile command trucks. Close to at least a hundred officers were securing the area as SWAT teams went into every building one by one and made sure that there were no other attackers waiting for an opportunity while paramedics and fire department personnel tended to the wounds of those mammals who hadn't yet been able to be taken to a hospital. As soon as the cruiser came to a stop Max got out and took in the scene, it wasn't as bad as the attack that he had seen last year on the TV but there was a large hole in the ground of the park that was clearly visible from where he was standing over a hundred yards away. An officer called into the back of one of the command trucks and Liam quickly came down the steps to great them, he shook Claire's paw,

"I'm glad you're here, ZPD isn't playing ball with us and I could use your clout"

"I'll set them straight, what have we got?"

"Bit's and pieces, the place is a mess"

He went to call overt to Max but he was already walking away from them towards the crater that a small group of crime scene officers were beginning to analyse.

"Where's he going?"

"Leave him be"

Liam looked at Claire with a puzzled look, she looked like the wind had been taken out of her sails,

"Are you alright? Did something happen?"

"It's complicated and between Max and myself. Give him some space"

He looked unsure at her but nodded after a couple of seconds,

"OK, let me show you what we have so far"

They stepped inside out of sight, Max hadn't heard anything that the two had said, he was too focused on the scene. He took his ID out of his pocket and hung it by its chain around his neck, despite having been given a ZBI badge when he was first accepted as being an ally once the ISB had been dealt with the administration had felt that they had given him too much authority and so they took away his agent status and made him a civilian advisor only. Although this position still gave him certain privileges he was no longer given the same level of freedoms that he had earlier such as carrying a firearm, now he was the only officially unarmed mammal in the ZBI investigations teams and although Claire had tried to have him re-instated her paws were tied as the order came down from far up the chain. She did manage to procure a gun for him, without higher authority knowing, but he was only to use it as a last resort, no more going off on his own like he did last year and taking the law into his own paws. He had started to feel like a servant again, useful only when somebody needed something taken care of and dis-guarded otherwise. And now the only person who he believed truly was looking out for him had turned out to be using him as far as he was concerned. He mumbled to himself as he approached the technicians,

"Things may have been better back home, at least I knew who the enemy was"

The two technicians were in full clean suits and they were even wearing gas masks, so when Max started coming closer to them in his suit and with no face protection the smaller of the two mammals, a pig, quickly scampered over to him and help out both his arms to stop him from coming closer.

"Sir don't come any closer we haven't opened the site yet, who are you?"

"Maxwell Langdon, I work with the ZBI"

He held the ID so that the pig could see it clearly, although he couldn't see the majority of the pigs face he could tell by the pigs eyes that it wasn't happy.

"Why are you here?"

"Oh because I fancied going for a stroll in the park on such a nice day"

"Huh?"

"Sarcasm obviously isn't one of your strong points, look I need to get a closer look so if you could just step aside"

He went to walk around the pig but it stepped along with him and blocked his path again,

"Shortstop I've had a bad day, I suggest you step aside and let me do my job"

"This is a police investigation and as such"

"That's where you're wrong, this is a terrorist attack and so it becomes the jurisdiction of all law enforcement agencies. The MBI being one of them and therefore the jurisdiction of the ZBI as well, so you have no authority to stop me"

The pig reluctantly let his arms drop by his side. Max stepped past him towards the larger of the two technicians, a cow, who was taking photos of evidence markers next to small pieces of what looked like shrapnel. The cow stopped what she was doing and took a couple of steps towards Max but she didn't try to stop him,

"I see you've met Alastair"

"Yeah. Is he always like that?"

"Pretty much, he's a prick to everyone. Thinks the sun shines out of his ass"

"I hope you're not like that"

"Far from it, I'm Shirley by the way"

She held out her hoof to him and he shook it, her grip was firm and she looked him in the eyes as she shook.

"Max. So, what have you got so far?"

"A few bits and pieces. A few small fragments moving out in all directions from the blast crater, a couple of short wires and what looks to be organic matter, possibly from one of the officers who was stood next to the bomber when it went off"

"There were officers next to the bomb?"

"According to the news, I haven't seen any witness reports but that's what they are reporting"

"Any lead on the explosive?"

"None yet, we have a chemical analyser back at the lab and we've sent samples for testing. Whatever it was was very powerful, the blast shattered every window that was facing the park"

She pointed to the residential complexes and Max followed where she was pointing to as she spoke

"Those complexes are over 150 yards away, and some of the victims told paramedics that they had been swept off their feet and flung around like rag dolls by the blast. It's a miracle that any of them survived"

"Hmmm"

Max started sniffing at the air, he could smell the blood from the wounded and the smoke from the fire, he could also smell the various scents of the mammals around him, but there was something missing, it was as if there was a piece of the puzzle missing but he didn't know what it was he was looking for. He pulled his radio off his belt and called into it,

"Liam it's Max, you there?"

"Go ahead"

"I'm at the first blast site with a CSI crew, there's no sign here of sunder being used"

"Are you sure?"

"Positive, there's no scent or visible residue left behind. Whatever it is that was used it's new to me, I can't detect it"

"Dammit, alright now what?"

"I'm going to lend a paw here and see if I can dig anything up, pass it on to the Director for me will you"

There was a moments pause before Liam responded,

"Will do, let me know if you find anything"

Max clipped his radio back on his belt, Shirley took her mask off and put it next to one of her tool cases,

"Sunder?"

"Long story. Need a paw?"

"If you know what you're doing then sure, there's spare gloves in the box"

* * *

Judy paced back and forth in the corridor of Zootopia Central Hospital, the only hospital in the Downtown district, as she waited for new about Nick. Luckily enough for them they were one of the first to arrive from the bombing thanks to Delgato's quick driving and so they were able to be seen very quickly, but now that more than an hour had passed it was quickly filling up with the dozens of injured mammals with various states of injury and the hospital was having to prioritize those with the most severe injuries which was causing a large number of distressed mammals extreme discomfort as the hospital staff had to organise their transfer to other hospitals outside the district. Judy looked at the clock on the wall for the fifth time in less than ten minutes, usually she was pretty good at keeping calm even in the most dire of situations that they found themselves in but this time she couldn't keep still, not long after they arrived Nick took a rapid downward turn and he was rushed into surgery before they knew what was really going on. The door to the surgery theatre opened and a german shepherd in doctors scrubs walked out with a clipboard in paw, as soon as she heard the door going Judy bounced over to it and the shepherd had to stop himself from colliding with her as he stepped out into the corridor, the shepherd could see the anxious look in her face and he put on a warm smile for her,

"Mrs Wildehopps your husbands surgery went well, he's asleep right"

"Oh thank you thank you, Doctor?"

"Just call me Lyle, I like to keep things friendly among my patients. How good is your husband at following instructions?"

"He can be pretty good, why?"

"Come sit with me for a moment, then I'll take you to the ward so you can see him"

Judy followed him down the hall to his office, he offered Judy a seat which she took and he poured a glass of cold water for himself and one for her before he sat down with the clipboard.

"May I call you Judy?"

"You may"

"Alright then. Judy I think it's important that I explain a couple of things to you before you see Nick, it would help you and him to deal with what's happened a little easier and it will come to less of a shock when you see him"

"What's wrong? Was it what happened when we got here?"

"The sudden downward spiral that came over him when he was admitted was blood loss and shock, we managed to deal with that with relative ease. What has me concerned is his eyes, I removed somewhere around 25 pieces of glass from in and around his eyes, some of which had gone pretty deep. The reason I asked about whether he can follow instructions or not is because of what he will have to do to recover his eyesight enough for him to comply with ZBI protocols"

Judy looked at him dumbfounded,

"I know who you two are, I think half the city does if not more. I also know he can be a bit of a less than adherent person when it comes to following orders. Which I s why I need your help to make sure that he stays the course of his treatment or he may permanently loose the sight in his eyes"

Judy took a big gulp of her drink, her paws were shaking and she almost spilled the drink on her as she looked down at her feet.,

"What does he need to do? More surgery?"

"I don't think so, if everything holds as we believe it will then it will be things you can do at home. Things like administering drops, changing bandages, taking the medicine we will be giving you, things like that. The largest change is that he wont be allowed to open his eyes when there is light around him. We had to cut a section out of his eye and at the moment it exposes too much light to the nerves at the back of his eye, it could burn them out"

"So he has to be temporarily blind to stop him becoming permanently blind"

"That's the easiest way of looking at it"

"How long will it take?"

"Depends on the patient, we'll have to do weekly assessments here but the average recovery time for this kind of operation is three months"

"3 months..."

"That's just to eyeball recovery, there will be further treatments he will need to go through but at 3 months he should be able to see"

Judy drank the last of her water and let out a low long sigh.

"I'll make sure he follows your instructions Lyle. Now I'd like to see my husband please"


	26. (Arc 2) Chapter 8

AN- Apologies for the short filler chapter, while in work i trapped my hand in one of the machines and badly injured it making typing difficult while it heals. I shall write what i can when i can and I may pout out shorter chapters like this one while it is healing. On another note i am planning a separate Zootopia story that will be an Alternative Universe sci-fi story that should pop up when this story comes to an end (Not soon).

* * *

Nick's head was pounding as if he had woken up with the worst hangover in his life, and he had had many to compare it to. Every joint in his body ached like he had been twisted in every direction possible and there was a horrible taste in his mouth and a lump in his throat. He tried swallowing to get rid of the taste but only managed make the feeling worse as he had no saliva to swallow. He tried to open his eyes but they wouldn't budge, he could feel a tightness around the top of his head that went down to his cheeks. He couldn't tell where he was, there was an overly clean scent in the air that was overpowering everything else and his hearing was like he was under water. He tried to lift his arm up to reach whatever was squeezing his head but all he could manage to do was to weakly flop his arm over his chest, the effort needed to do just that simple task took the breath out of him and he was panting as disorientation and panic began to set in, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt someone's paw in his own, reflexively he went to pull his paw back but it kept his paw held firm but not squeezing it. The paw was smaller than his own, and he could feel something on one of it's fingers that was very familiar. Talking was difficult with his mouth feeling as it was but he managed to croak out.

"Judy?"

He could here a muffled response and the paw give a gentle squeeze. A smile crept up the side of his face for a moment, he licked his lips to try and make talking easier,

"Everything sounds muffled, what's going on? Where am I? Why cant I see?"

He could hear her say something, but he couldn't make out what. She let go of his paw and he felt her hop up onto the bed next to him. She took his face in her paws and gently held him still for a moment. He was about to ask her what she was doing when he felt something cold go into his ear, there was a loud popping sound and a high pitched ringing and he pulled his head away in discomfort, which made his head pound even more and made him feel like he had been punched in the side of the head. He felt like shouting at her until he realised that he could hear now in that ear.

"Jesus, what was that for?"

"I'm so sorry Nick"

"Mr Wildehopps if you could hold still for a moment please"

He didn't recognise the calm male voice and he froze for a moment, it was unsettling not being able to see who was talking to him especially after what he had just felt.

"Who are you?"

"My names Lyle, I'm the Doctor overseeing your recovery"

A larger paw was placed on the other side of his head and tilted it so his ear was facing upwards,

"What are you doing?"

"I'm clearing a fluid build up in your ears, unless of course you want them to become infected"

Nick groaned slightly and relaxed his head. There was another loud pop and ringing sound that made him wince but after a couple of seconds he could hear again. He opened his mouth wide a couple of times to alleviate the strange feeling of whatever Lyle had just done to him.

"What's going on, where am I?"

"You are in the Hospital recovery ward Mr Wildehopps, Zootopia Central Hospital to be specific. What's the last thing you remember?"

"umm...My kits crying after...we told them their uncle had died"

"Nothing after that?"

"No, nothing"

"I'd say that's pretty good, how are you feeling?"

"Rough, everything hurts and and my head is pounding"

"That will subside in a few hours. You had an allergic reaction to one of the new medicines we had given you, you've been out cold for two days"

"Medicine. For what? Why can't I see?"

"Lyle could you let me talk to Nick please, alone?"

"Certainly Judy, press the call button on the wall if you need me"

Nick could hear claws on the hard floor as they moved away from the bed he was sitting on, after a few seconds there was a click of a door and the room went quiet. He felt Judy walk over and sit down next to him, she took his paw in hers and she put her head against his side. A cold object was put on his lap and she put his free paw on it,

"I got a bottle of water for you, it should help with your voice"

It was a sports top bottle so he opened it with his teeth and downed most of the bottle in one go, the cold liquid felt nice against his throat and the sand-papery texture in his mouth disappeared almost instantly although the odd taste remained behind.

"Nick, two days ago there was another attack in the city near our apartment. You were standing next to the window when the bomb went off. The explosion shattered the window and peppered your face with glass. That's why your head is bandaged"

"Are James and Violet okay?"

"They're fine, scared by all of this but their alright. Marian's looking after them at Marigolds place for a few days while we sort out alternative accommodation. The whole blocks sealed off, I had to call in some favours from when we were at the ZPD to get a suitcase full of things from our apartment"

He put his arm around her and hugged her close.

"As long as everyone's alright that's all that matters. When can I take this bandage off, it's kind of uncomfortable"

Judy's ears drooped and Nick felt them against his arm, she knew it would be better for him to hear it from her than from Lyle but she didn't know the best way to go about it.

"Carrots, your ears are drooping"

She felt like kicking herself that she hadn't thought about that beforehand,

"Some of the glass cut you pretty deep...in your eyes"

"My... eyes.."

"You aren't blind Nick well temporarily kind of this isn't how I thought it out in my head"

"Judy calm down. Just tell me, don't sugar coat it just give me the facts"

"Lyle said that he had to cut holes into your eyes to remove the glass, if you take your bandages off before they've healed you'll be blind permanently, but if you follow his treatments then they should be healed soon"

"How soon?"

"three...months"

Nick sat still like a statue, if his eyes weren't covered then Judy would have been able to see them go wide as can be, thoughts of his career, helping protect both the city and his family ran through his mind. After a longer than normal silence between the two Judy gave him a kiss on the cheek and hugged him tightly,

"We'll figure this out Nick. I'll take time off work to help you"

"No you wont"

"What?"

"Judy, the city needs as many agents and cops to hunt Sokolov down as it can get, they can't lose both of us to this"

"But Nick how are you going to manage on your own? And don't I get a say in this?"

"Of course you do, but we both swore an oath to protect this city right?"

"Yeah we did"

"The safety of it's citizens take priority over our own lives, we go out every day and put ourselves on the line so that others can feel safe"

"That's a dirty tactic Nick, using my own logic against me"

A sly grin came over his face,

"It's working though isn't it"

He could tell she was pouting at him,

"Well whether you like it or not I'm taking a few days to make sure you aren't over estimating your own capabilities. On a serious note though how will you manage?"

"Well I wont be on my own, the kits are on holiday and Mom is with us, you know that she will make sure I'm alright"

Judy let out a sigh,

"I can't say I'm happy with this, but I will give in for now"

"Good, now is there anything to eat? I have a horrible taste in my mouth I want to get rid of"


	27. (Arc 2) Chapter 9

It was early morning in Zootopia, and as many of the cities residence were on their way to work packed like sardines in the trains and buses or stuck in rush hour traffic the ZBI Headquarters was already in full swing. A briefing had been called for 8 am and was being attended by the heads of all sections of the ZBI that were involved in the park bombing as well as those who had been assigned to tracking down Sokolov, which ended up being almost every section, and they were accompanied by their unit leaders as well. The briefing was being held in the auditorium that was usually used for educational visits or for press conferences and it was packed, several agents had to stand as there was no more room and there was a droning of mammals chatting amongst themselves as they waited for Claire to arrive and start the briefing off. Liam had just finished discussing with the technical guys to make sure everything was ready, with them giving the thumbs up he went to Claire know that they were ready. Her office was not far from the auditorium and it only took him a minute to get there, he wrapped his knuckles against the frosted glass window on her door and headed inside. Her office was a mess, there were stacks of papers all over the place and yellow sticky notes plastered a cork notice board attached to her wall, she was trawling through a stack of documents and signing off each page as she went, it was quite clear that she hadn't heard him enter the office as she was deep in thought and so he picked up one of the thinner documents and dropped it on the table in front of her. She shot back in her chair and nearly sent her coffee flying across the room as sh recoiled with a slight yell.

"Christ Liam are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Sorry, but I did knock first"

She patted her chest with one paw and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

"What are you doing here anyway? I thought you said you were going to get everything set up for the briefing"

"I did Claire, over an hour ago"

She looked puzzled for a moment before she looked at her watch and her eyes went wide.

"Ah shit"

She grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair as she got up and quickly put it on, she quickly signed one last page of the document before closing it and taking it with her as she quickly ushered Liam out of the room and the two of them walked briskly down the corridor to the auditorium. Along the way Liam brought her up to speed.

"Judy called about an hour ago, Nick's awake"

"How is he?"

"She says he's kind of out of it still from the anaesthesia but he's doing alright, he's taking his injuries well apparently"

"Those two can't catch a break, she's not coming in is she?"

"No. I told her we'd give her the minutes from the briefing when she's up to coming in. I wouldn't want to push her"

"You're right. Sometimes Liam I think you'd be better suited for this position than me"

"Well the pay rise would be nice, but I prefer to be in the field"

"You and me both"

"You've done pretty well so far Claire, most of the staff like and respect you"

"I don't get that feeling Liam, I don't see everyone as much as I did before"

"you do tend to stay in your office to much, get amongst the departments again like before and you'll see what I mean"

The corridor was almost empty now as those who were attending the briefing were already inside and the rest of the workers in this area hadn't started shift yet. Liam put his arm out and slowed Claire down.

"By the way, when I went to get Max for the briefing he told me it wasn't necessary for him to be here, do you know anything about that?"

Claire looked straight ahead as if she hadn't heard him but Liam could tell she was just trying to ignore him, after being stuck behind a desk for almost a year her usual walls that she put up were beginning to break and it was becoming easier to read her.

"Look, Claire, whatever is happening between you two needs to stop. Everyone can tell something has gone down and neither of you is happy about it, its going to cause problems and you know it"

She sighed,

"I know it's just...it's complicated"

"He didn't ask you out did he"

There was a slight tint in her cheeks,

"Good god no. No, it's far worse. But this is not the time or place for this"

"Then you and I are going to have a chat after Claire, the quicker this is resolved the better"

"We've had a disagreement about how things are done, so I've let him have some more freedom to investigate to let him get his head in gear, unofficially of course."

"Why unofficially? I know he isn't an agent but that didn't stop us before"

She stopped for a moment and made sure noone was listening,

"Top brass is tightening the leash, they don't want him to have the same powers as us. As far as anyone's aware Max is just a consultant for us"

"So what do we do if he finds something? Or does something?"

"Then he contacts you and you sort it out"

"Me?!"

"I cant do it i'm part of their system"

She stepped past him and he followed a couple of steps behind, the heavy automatic swing door to the auditorium opened for her as she approached and the droning conversations quickly quietened down to little more than a murmur as everyone realised that she was there. Vicky, who was stood at the front near a projector for the white board on the wall, walked over to her and Claire handed her the document before beginning her briefing.

"Good morning"

There was a murmuring of mornings in reply,

"I know its earlier than some of you would have liked but there is a reason for that, this briefing is going to be in two parts, firstly we will be going over the major evidence that we have collected so far to ensure that everyone is on the same page with what's happening. And secondly we will be discussing Operation Opal, A simultaneous strike with the ZPD due to take place at 14:00 hours today against a number of targets from the intelligence packets you were given earlier. Today we will get answers as to why we were attacked again, and we will make those responsible pay dearly for it. As you all know the last 48 hours have been extremely busy for everyone, and there are a number of us who have had little sleep so lets get this over so we can relax a little tonight"

She pressed a button on the laptop in front of her and the huge whiteboard behind her light up as an aerial photo of the park was projected onto it. It looked a mess, there was a large dark spot near the side of the park next to Nick and Judy's apartment complex and there were red patches and bodies covered in white sheets as they were waiting to be collected by the coroner.

"This was taken by drone roughly two hours after the initial blast, as you can see the blast was substantial and affected a large area. We now know that twenty two civilians, eight of whom were kits, along with two officers from ZPD precinct three were killed in the blast either from the blast itself or from their injuries. This photo"

She pressed a button again and a different aerial picture from a side street leading away from the park popped up. The entire area was carnage and it reminded several of the mammals present of videos they had seen online of air-strikes, almost all of the buildings in the street had their fronts completely destroyed and all of the cars in the street were burned out or just scrap metal on the floor, a deep hole in the ground was half full of water and the road surface around the hole looked like it had melted.

"This second blast was much larger than the first, although several officers and nine civilians were injured by the blast, due to a cordon being put in place for the first blast there were not that many people around when it detonated. The vehicle that was carrying the bomb was an ambulance that had been stolen from a parking lot earlier in the day as it's crew were on lunch break, given the time of the report and the detonation of the device being only six hours we know for a fact that whoever fitted this device was inside the city and so we don't need to look elsewhere for suspects. We do however have a problem with our only known suspect."

She pressed another button and a picture of a tiger dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit holding up a placard with numbers on it replaced the aerial photo, next to it was a picture taken from an ATM CCTV camera showed an identical tiger in thick padded clothing walking away from the park. The time-stamp on the picture showed it to be only twelve minutes before the second blast. There was a murmuring in the room as people recognised the tiger,

"Settle down everyone. We ran facial recognition on all connected cameras in the city to track known high value targets and this is who we found, we followed this mammal by CCTV back to the ambulance only five minutes before it detonated and where it was waiting in line to be called into the park. For those of you who aren't aware this is Carlos Raya, he's the head of the now defunct Brass Angels, a vicious gang who's exploits were all over the news a few years ago. Raya is supposed to be behind bars at a federally controlled maximum security prison where he will remain until his death, however as you can all see he is out and about and the board of corrections can find no record of him actually reaching a correction facility. We're trying to find out why he's out but right now that doesn't matter, given the threat we received from Sokolov we have to assume that Sokolov and Raya are working together. We have absolutely no intelligence on Sokolov's whereabouts and so we are launching simultaneous strikes on all known safe houses, associates, family members, business, anything and everything related to Raya. If you know of something that is not in your intelligence packets let us know and we'll arrange additional strikes. We cannot afford to lose him or anyone connected to him, understood? Good"

Claire took a sip of water from a bottle she had brought with her before bringing the next slide up,

"Both ZBI and ZPD bomb squads and laboratories have analysed all of the components collected from the scenes. I'll read an extract from their report, _The explosive is believed to be plastic in nature, traces of_ _pentaerythritol tetranitrate_ _were found coating all components, however it is believed that the explosive in question reacts far for violently. It has also been found that the material is undetectable by conventional field tracking methods_. For those of you among us like myself who don't speak scientist what was used in the bombings was a more powerful version of Semtex, one that hasn't been seen before and we have no means by which to track it, it has no scent and so far we don't know what it looks like so we're running blind here. Sokolov is known to have knowledge of explosives however we don't think he has the facilities capable of manufacturing this explosive so we need to find out his supplier asap, so keep an eye out in the raids for anything that could lead us to the source, somebody knows how he's getting it and we need to know who it is now."

Claire took another sip of her water while she let the agents murmur amongst themselves as they took in what he had said,

"Now I'd like to say that that's the worst of it but I'm afraid it does get worse. Up until now the condition of the bombing victims has been kept only to higher ups but with today's raids it's necessary to let you all know what's happening. Right now all victims are being treated in Sahara General Hospital, what hasn't been made public is that they are all in quarantine. All victims who were hit directly by the blast have shown signs of infection from an unknown illness, all became ill within eight hours of the blast and two hours ago the first of them died from it. Sokolov threatened last year to use chemical weapons and it seems that he has acted on his threat. We've managed to put in an emergency request with the national guard station just outside the city limits and have secured NBCW suits for the entry teams going into non residential sites, but I want everyone wearing gas masks and gloves, we can't take any chances with this one."

Unlike before this time when he paused to let it sink in there wasn't any murmuring, the seriousness of what was going to take place had suddenly become far more real for everyone.

"I take it everyone has their game caps on now. Take out your information packets"

Claire brought the next slide up and started going into depth about which targets were their priority and how they were going to conduct the operation.

* * *

While close to two hundred agents and police officers prepared for their raids Max was driving to the scene of the bomb attacks. Like everyone else involved in the case he had seen all of the video evidence and read all of the witness statements and something wasn't sitting right with him. The officers who were killed by the first blast were wearing body cameras that were recording to a portable computer in the trunk of their patrol car, when he saw it it sent alarm bells ringing in his head. The bomber was a bear who looked to be homeless, Sokolov had used homeless mammals in the past to deliver explosives as they usually go undetected and are willing to deliver what they think are drugs for cash in paw, however the fact that he was wearing a metal vest and looked terrified out of his mind was a new level Max hadn't seen before from him. And there was something else with the bear that looked odd, he had the look in his eyes of a puppet like the bull that attacked them in the morgue the year before, but the bear seemed to be alive and have his own mind. With nothing to go on in the reports he had decided to revisit the scene and see if he could get anything else while the teams conducted their raids.

As he pulled onto the street that lead to the outer cordon he could see a small group of mammals putting down flowers at what was an impromptu memoriam for those that had been killed. Hundreds of bouquets and individual flowers lay in a row against a large metal wall that had been erected around the scene, it was the first time that the ZPD had deployed these portable metal walls that were designed to keep riots in check. Although the walls were a temporary barricade to prevent mammals from entering the sixteen square block area in order for the scene to not be contaminated it had received huge criticism as residents were also being prevented from returning home even to collect small personal items such as cell phones and wallets and there was public outcry against the new Police Commissioner because of it.

Max slowed down and pulled into an empty spot behind a pickup truck and turned off the engine, he had opted to use his private car a posed to an unmarked cruiser as he didn't want to be tracked wherever he went, his argument with Claire had only brought back the uncomfortable paranoid feeling he had after discovering the small tracker units in his belongings six months ago. He had spent most of yesterday going through everything he owned to make sure they were clean before he did anything else. He hated the feeling of being watched, but he wasn't at all surprised and he knew he shouldn't have yelled at Claire, he knew he should apologise but he also felt like he had been wronged and so was reluctant to do so, he was stubborn like that. The brief chat that they had had after he had gone through his belongings wasn't very pleasant, but they had agreed that she would let him continue his search for Sokolov so long as he kept it quiet, he had accepted her proposal and was out of the office without even saying goodbye.

Max shook his head to clear the thought so he could focus on what he was doing, there was a gate in the wall with two officers stood guarding it. He took his ID out of his jacket pocket and held it so that only the ZBI badge and his picture was visible and not his position title, confidently he walked over to them and held it up quickly for them before pocketing it again. The officers looked bored and didn't ask to check it properly, one of them stood aside and let him through the gate before closing it. Inside the cordon was eerily quiet, there was nobody around and the streets had abandoned cars where the occupants had fled quickly after the attack. As he walked towards the park he passed the street where the larger explosion had happened, there was a small team of forensic recovery officers trawling through the rubble from the buildings that had sustained massive damage. A flatbed truck with a crane was parked in the middle of the road and it had two burned out cars on it, all of the officers looked busy so he decided to make himself scarce before one of them spotted him. He walked for another two blocks before coming to the park, a CSI truck was parked next to it and a familiar looking figure was putting on a forensic boiler suit at the back of it, when he got a bit closer he called out to it,

"Hey Shirley"

The cow looked over in surprise as she flipped the hood of the suit over her ears,

"Oh hey Max, didn't expect to see you back here"

"Something about this isn't sitting right with me, thought maybe coming back might give me some ideas. How about you?"

"Gathering some more samples"

She pulled a gas mask out of the back and put it on top of her head before grabbing a large metal case,

"We found a thick black residue on some of the stuff we recovered from the park, I thought it might have been some sort of oil based accelerant but it's coming back as an unknown chemical. Need to find some more for tests"

"If you only need samples then why the mask?"

"Our system in the lab isn't the most up to date, but that fact that it can't identify the substance makes me worried, I'm not taking any chances"

"I don't blame you."

Max took a card out of his pocket and held it out for her,

"Here's my cell number, do me a favour and let me know what you find. We need whatever information we can get"

She took it off him and looked at it quickly, she then put it in the breast pocket of her suit.

"I will. Well time to get to work"

Shirley walked off deeper into the park towards the blast site while he walked towards Nick and Judy's apartment complex, when they had heard that Nick had been injured in the blast the first theory that the team had come up with is that they had been targeted. Max however wasn't convinced, if they wanted to kill Nick and Judy then they could have just gone inside the building before blowing it up, that meant that there was another reason this place specifically had been targeted. He had been looking around the area for almost an hour and he had expanded his search to the streets around the park when he heard someone in the middle of a heated argument coming from an alley not far from him. He quickly made his way over to where the voices were coming from and he could see a dark blonde female rabbit being shouted at by an angry looking pig police officer who was waving his hoof in her face, the rabbit however didn't look like she was intimidated, just annoyed at being stopped. As Max got closer he could make out what was being said,

"Look lady I told you yesterday you couldn't come in here and I told you today you couldn't come in here, what makes you think you can just enter a restricted area of your own free will"

"This is public property so I can go where I want, and I'm here to recover my camera kit"

"This may be public property ma'am but you're trespassing in crime scene, reporter or not I should arrest you right now and be done with it"

The pig put his hoof on his cuff pouch and popped the catch on it, Max decided to step in before things got out of hand.

"Everything alright here?"

"Sir what are you doing in a..oh I recognise you from precinct one. What are you doing here?"

"My job"

Max flashed his ID again but was careful to keep his paw over his title again.

"What's going on here officer?"

"This reporter keeps trying to trespass behind the cordon, I caught her while on patrol"

"I just want my stuff back, is that too much to ask?"

Max held his paws up to get them to stop and let him speak,

"What stuff ma'am?"

"My camera kit, I was setting up to do a piece when the bomb went off, I panicked and left it behind but I need it back so I can work"

"Where is your kit?"

"It's in the free world store, next to the park"

"If I take you to get your kit will you stay out of the cordon?"

"Yes I will, all I want is the kit"

"Alright. Officer I'll handle this"

"Fine by me"

The pig gave the rabbit a disgusted look before rearranging his cap and walking off towards the cordon wall, when he was out of sight Max gestured to the rabbit to come with him and they headed back towards the park.

"So you're a reporter?"

"I am, Marigold Hopps ZNN"

"What were you doing here when the attack happened?"

"Hopps? You any relation to Judy by any chance?"

"Yeah she's my sister, how'd you know her?"

"Judy and I work in the same department, I'm Max. So what were you doing here when the bomb went off?"

"You questioning me sir?"

"Making conversation"

"It's the one year anniversary of the Downtown bombing, a group of us went out to get stories from those that had survived the attack"

"So what were you covering?"

"After the attack there were a lot of mammals who's injuries meant they couldn't continue working in their jobs any more, so the community set up a store that caters to them and let them work again, it kind of became an unofficial symbol of the city's resilience. I was setting up to do interviews with the employees when the bomb went off. Everybody panicked, we were scared it would end up being as big as the last one so we left everything and ran as fast as we could"

She visibly shuddered as she told him,

"I know what it's like being in an attack, it isn't nice by any stretch"

"Yeah, don't think I've slept much since"

They rounded the corner and could see the front of the store a few car lengths away, the front was damaged but as it was relatively far from the blast site the only damage seemed to be broken windows. Inside the store it looked like nothing had happened except for one of the displays having been knocked over by mammals as they had run for their lives. Stood on a tripod next to one of the cash registers was a camcorder that was facing the front of the store and an open bag full of equipment, Marigold went straight over to it and started checking the camera over.

"It looks alright, still has some battery in it as well"

"Did you manage to record anything before the blast?"

"Yeah. It was running when it happened, have a look"

She pressed a couple of buttons and turned the screen so he could see, Marigold fast forwarded her interview with one of the employees for a few seconds before letting it play.

"Watch the window behind her"

The camera had a pretty clear view out across the park and Max could just make out the two officers talking with the homeless mammal as he was choking, moments later there was a bright flash and a deafening bang as the bomb exploded. It was the moments just after the blast, before everyone realised what was happening, that caught his attention. Thick black mist flew out from explosion in all directions before beginning to settle on the ground, his view of the area was quickly blocked however as all of the mammals in the shop and on the street started to run. Max thought of what Shirley had said and a horrible thought,

"Can you make a copy of it for me?"

"Sure gimme a sec"

She took a SD card out of the case and quickly made a copy of it for him, she held it up and he took it from her and put it into his phone, checking it worked before sending it to Liam.

"Thanks, our lab techs might be able to make use of this"

"Your welcome, consider it thanks for getting my equipment back"

She was packing the last of her gear into the bag when Max got a message off Liam,

 _Claire says good work, this seems to confirm our thoughts_.

He text back, _I'm going to keep searching, let you know what I find_. The sound of Marigolds bag being zipped up brought Max's attention back and he pocketed his phone.

"Ready?"

"Yeah"

"Lets get you out of here before that cop harasses you again"

The pair headed back to the gate he had come through and they were let out by the officers guarding it, the pig was there and Marigold gave him a smug look as she happily followed Max back onto the street with her case in paw. He said goodbye to Marigold and headed to his car, he hadn't seen Shirley's CSI truck when he had left the store but he was now very interested in finding out what the substance she had found was so he headed off to Precinct one to find out which lab she was attached to.

Traffic was rather light and he could almost see the tall spire of City Hall from where he was on the highway. As he sat at a red light on the last turning that took him into the main governing area of Zootopia where City Hall and Precinct One were located the fur on the back of his head stood on edge, he suddenly felt very cold and his breath was forming mist in the warm car. Unhinged whispering and a sickening feeling took hold of him as he looked around to try and find the source, the last time he felt like this Sokolov's puppet had woken up in the morgue and tried to kill him Nick Judy and Claire. The light turned green and the car behind him beeped their horn at him when he didn't move, he looked up and quickly moved the car off the highway and into a parking spot nearby. He turned the engine off and got out, the feeling wouldn't go away and he franticly looked about. Everything looked normal, mammals were going about their business completely oblivious to the fact that he was blowing a thick mist with every breath. He continued to look around until a tall truck moved in the traffic and he saw something, hanging from the outside of the Natural History Museum was a drape advertising a new exhibit. When he read what was on it his eyes went wide and he grabbed his collar without thinking.

* * *

Across the city one of the ZBI strike teams had burst into the business of one of Raya's former business partners. The doberman had been a weapons supplier for Raya and had smuggled guns at one point or another for just about every mob boss in the region, in exchange for a damning testimony against Raya the MBI had given him immunity and a new identity, in the time since he had built up a legitimate and well liked business making custom rugs for the rich and powerful in the city. But that didn't stop the ZBI from raiding his business, he was in the middle of making a sale to a rather influential member of the city council when a number of cars screeched to a halt outside and too many agents for him to count came running in with a warrant and detained everyone including the councillor, now he was sat in the back of a cruiser with his paws cuffed behind him as agents and forensic officers pulled his business apart. He could see a lion in a suit who stood out from the others walking towards him and he was ready to demand to speak to his lawyer when the lion opened the door but the lion had a look on his face that scared him into silence,

"Where's the key Mark?"

"What key?"

"The key to the door in the basement, the one where you hid the entrance behind a packing shelf"

Marks skin went white, he thought he had hidden it well, there were loads of boxes stacked up in front of it they should never have been able to see it.

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"You aren't as smart as you think you are Mark, guess all that time being free didn't teach you anything"

Liam slammed the door and called over to one of the agents stood outside,

"Bring the hammer, we'll break it down"

The agent opened up the trunk of his cruiser, brought out a sledgehammer, and followed Liam into the building. They headed past a number of agents, who were questioning the staff and customers who had been in the store at the time, and into the storage area out the back. The room was large and looked like a small warehouse, dozens of rolls of rugs and carpets with various designs and materials were hung up on giant rollers that lined the walls, against the rear wall used to be several storage racks which were filled with cardboard boxes which were now scattered across the floor, the racks were lying on their sides a few feet away and there was a cut-out in the wall that lead into a steep downward slope that descended almost two storeys bellow ground. A large metal door sat at the bottom and Liam stopped next to it, he took the hammer off the agent who stepped back, a number of other agents stood ready with him as Liam took a few heavy swings at the doors lock. There were several loud metallic thuds as Liam swung again and again. With each strike the lock dented more and more until eventually it smashed and the door swung open. Liam quickly stood back and the agents rushed in past him with their guns and flashlights raised and a few moments later there was a call of all clear.

He stepped into the dark room and felt along the wall, it was damp to the touch but he found what he was looking for and flipped the switch. The lights flickered for a moment before coming on to reveal a large but empty room that smelled of damp.

"Is there anything else that comes off this?"

"No sir, it's just an empty room"

"Alright, everyone clear out and let CSI get to work, there's got to be a reason he went to lengths to hide this place"

Liam got on the phone to Claire as he stepped back up and headed to his cruiser,

"What you go for me Liam?"

"We found a hidden basement beneath the carpet store, we've arrested everyone until we can question them and find out what they know"

"Was there anything in the basement?"

"Room appears empty, I've got Daniel from Vicki's lab with us and he's gonna have a deeper look. Anyone else find anything?"

"Nothing related to the case, some of Raya's people had moved on to drugs and prostitution but there's nothing so far to link them to him since his arrest"

"Dammit"

Liam looked behind him to see Mark in the back of the patrol car looking at him nervously which made Liam think,

"Claire has the team hitting Mark Divers home address found anything?"

"Nothing it's clean"

"Then why the hell is he so nervous"

He cancelled the call and put his cell away, he took his jacket off and was putting it in the back of his car when one of the agents came running out the front door and called him,

"Sir you need to come look at what Daniels found"

Liam quickly ran after the agent and into the basement bellow, Daniel had just about managed to squeeze his large form down into the basement and he was in full forensic coveralls and respirator.

"Liam stop. Put your mask on"

Liam turned around and found an agent holding a mask out for him, he and everyone else quickly put them on after hearing Daniel.

"You might wanna call Hazmat"

"Why? What you find?"

"We don't know what this substance that the victims are infected with is right, but we do know that it glows under red light as opposed to black light"

"Alright I'm following you"

Daniel took a flashlight out of his forensics case and turned it on,

"Knock the light off"

One of the agents who was stood by the door flicked the switch and the lights went out, instantly the wall where Daniel was shinning his flashlight lit up like a glowstick, the entire wall was glowing and wherever he shone the flashlight glowed as well except for the entranceway where they were stood.

"This entire place is contaminated, I think we've found where they were making the stuff"

Liam pointed his flashlight at the floor, under the more intense light than that provided by the overhead lights he could just make out a marks on the stone floor,

"Something big was dragged out of here, so where the hell have they taken all the equipment?"

"I think you should be more worried about why isn't there any equipment as to where it is£

"What do you mean?"

"You don't get rid of a laboratory unless you're not making it any more"

* * *

Max walked up the steps and through the rotary door to the Natural History Museum that was busy with mammals from schools and just those who wanted a day out, he had been here once before with Nick and Judy on one of their tours to help him get to know the city better and it's where he learned about the nighthowlers and how Nick and Judy first met. He usually wasn't one for museums, with the life he lead he found it too slow and quiet but today it had his full attention. Hanging above the reception desk was another banner for the new exhibit that was visiting from another museum in the middle east, it wasn't so much where it was from but the pictures on the banner that caught his attention. A portrait of a female sand cat in Egyptian clothing was displayed on the banner, she was holding a staff who's head was shaped exactly like the symbol used by the Seeker order that was stamped onto his collar and burned into his chest. He could feel his breath catching as he looked at the sand cat, she was the spiting image of the Baroness, the head of his order. He didn't know what to think as he stared at her image until a member of staff spotted him staring at the banner and walked over to him.

"Afternoon sir"

Max took his paw away from his collar and turned the collar of his shirt up to hide it.

"uh, afternoon"

"I couldn't help notice you looking at our banner, are you interested in ancient Egypt?"

"You could say that"

"Well we're currently running tours of the new exhibit, if you'd like we could fit you into one"

Max nodded and followed the staff member to the desk where he filled out a quick visitors form before being lead to a group of mammals who were heading to the exhibit with a tour guide. He tagged onto the end and followed them into one of the enclosed wings of the building. Most of the first section was general stuff about where the exhibit fit into the timeline with other discoveries, Max still didn't quite understand this worlds timeline. He knew the year was 2024 but he had no idea how that worked with his as his time was After Event or AE325, 325 years after the emergence of the Thirin. The further they progressed through the exhibit the stronger the unpleasant feeling that Max had been feeling was getting, whatever was causing it was getting closer and he carefully unclipped the top of his holster so that he could get his gun out quicker in case it was another puppet. His attention was drawn back to the tour when they entered into a large circular room, at the centre of the room was a huge glass case with an ornately decorated sarcophagus inside, the tour guide continued to blather on and Max zoned out again as he stared at the picture next to the sarcophagus, it was the image of the sand cat again and it had her name above it, Max didn't pay attention to that though as beneath it was written that she was being used as a base for an educational computer model to teach children about history, she was going to be the first fully 3D rendered teaching tool. It made him think, he had never actually seen the Baroness before in person, it had only been over a computer or from a recorded video, but surely it couldn't be the same person. Suddenly he could hear the whispering again only it was much closer, he stepped away from the group and around the side of the central display case to see more cases lining the walls behind it, and in one of them he could see the source of his feelings, a blood red orb. It was the same size and colour as the one that Sokolov had stolen from their world only this one had a black line running down the centre of it from pole to pole. Under his breath he whispered,

"My god, there's more than one"

He took out his cell to call Liam, while it was ringing he heard the tour guide say,

"And in several scriptures we find the call of the pharaoh that was used as a battle cry by her armies. The language is ancient and has been replaced by today's Arabic but we believe it says"

The tour guide began to speak in a language that those taking the tour didn't understand, but Max did. While staring at the orb, and without thinking, he blurted out,

"By tooth, or by claw, let none take hold."

This elicited strange looks from those on the tour and the tour guide herself.

"You know this language sir?"

He looked around and realised that everyone was staring at him,

"excuse me"

He quickly turned and walked out of the exhibit as the tour guide called after him with interest at his knowledge, but Max had no intention of stopping, until he got away from the orb.

Liam stepped up from the basement to the shop floor and pulled the gas mask off, looking at the clock on the wall he could see that it was almost 3pm, there was only 9 hours left before Sokolov ran out of time to call Max and they still didn't have any idea where he was. He took his phone out and called Claire again, she was quick to answer with it only ringing once,

"What you got for me Liam?"

"Daniels checked the basement, the entire place has contaminated with our mystery substance"

"Is there any of it there?"

"No but there's signs that it's been moved, I'd say recently as well"

As he was talking to her he could see Mark in the back of the car looking more and more nervous the longer he spoke.

"With what Max has sent us we're running out of time, how would you feel if I bent the rules a little?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Probably best you don't ask"

There was a pause for a moment, Liam could hear other mammals from the command team talking in the background as they tried to juggle all the different assets that were being used for the raids.

"Get it done"

Claire ended the call and he put his cell back in his pocket, he calmly walked over to Alex from his investigations team who had come with them, the young bull was helping agents search through the paperwork in the office, Liam made sure his back as facing Mark so he couldn't see what he was saying,

"Alex we need to make Mark talk, he obviously knows something but we don't have time to take him back for questioning"

"Alright, what do you want to do?"

"Put your gas mask on and get one for him, take him to the basement and play along with what I do"

"Good cop bad cop?"

"Bad cop worse cop, now is not the time to play nice"

"Understood"

Liam walked out the front of the shop and to the trunk of his car, he watched as Alex came out with his mask on and with a smaller one for Mark. The doberman struggled for a moment but the much larger Alex easily overpowered him and with seemingly little effort he dragged the now masked up Mark into the store. Mark protested the whole way down, the other agents stood back and watched as he flailed around knocking over a lamp and smashing a computer monitor with his feet as he tried to get free of Alex's vice like grip. When they got to the basement door he shoved Mark with enough force to send him skidding across the floor on his back, as he looked up at Alex he could also see Liam calmly walk in behind him. Liam turned to Daniel who was looking shocked at what had happened, he had been engrossed in what he was doing when he heard the thud of Mark hitting the floor.

"Daniel out"

"Wha"

"I said out, now"

Daniel left his case and equipment where they were and squeezed himself out of the door, when he was gone Liam took the red-light from Daniels case and shone it around for Mark to see,

"You and your friends have been busy, but so have we. Where are the weapons?"

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Oh I think you do, see they moved out of here recently, took everything with them, except for one thing"

He flicked the overhead lights on and put his paw into his back pocket and pulled out a sealed test tube with a black liquid in it, he waved it about so the Mark could see it clearly. Marks eyes went wide with fear,

"Look I didn't have anything to do with it"

"Do you know what this is? It's very nasty stuff, rots you away completely, turns you to mush"

Mark wriggled backwards as Liam slowly stepped towards him with Alex just behind until he had backed himself up against the wall and could go no further.

"Here, why don't you have some"

He took the plunger out of the top of the test tube and threw it over Mark who was yelling in fear as the thick black liquid soaked into his fur,

"You people are sick, what have you done to me!"

"Now now calm down, I have the antidote as well, our people have been busy at work as well you see"

He pulled a second test tube out of his pocket but this one was full of a green liquid, he waved it tantalisingly in front of Mark and Alec put his foot against Marks chest to stop him trying to dive at Liam for it.

"Give it to me I don't want to die, please give it to me!"

"Tell me everything there is about this place and who your working for or I'll sit here and watch you die in a slow and painful manner"

"Alright alright. Six months ago a wolf in a suit and a metal mask was sitting in my car after I finished work, he said he knew I had ratted on Raya and that if I didn't help him he'd let Raya's guys know where I was. This building always had a basement like this so he hid his stuff in here during the day and worked at night when noone was around, I don't know any more than that"

"Bullshit, they're working on your property and you don't take any notice?"

"If I stuck my nose in and Raya found out he'd kill my family"

"You did find out though didn't you, you wouldn't have recognised this stuff otherwise"

"Fuck me. Okay one day there was a power outage in the building, I'm the only one who knows how to use the old fuse system here so one of them called me to get it fixed, I saw loads of nasty looking shit in here and a bunch of business delivery boxes"

"What kind of boxes?"

"Ones with medical symbols all over them that's all I know I swear"

"When did they leave?"

"Come man I need the antidote"

"When did they leave?!"

"Two days ago, I came in to open up and they were gone"

Liam stared at him intently but he couldn't see any signs of lying, only intense fear.

"uncuff him"

Alex took his foot off Marks chest and forced him onto his front, there was a clunking click as he undid the cuffs and removed them. Mark jumped up and almost ripped the test tube out of Liam's paw. He dove out of the room and tore the top off and downed it in one mouthful, but he had a confused and scared look on his face as Liam followed after him laughing,

"What. What is this?"

"It's mountain dew"

"Where's the antidote?!"

"Why would you need an antidote when I threw motor oil over you? Arrest this mammal under the antiterrorism law and take him in for more questioning"

As two agents who had been waiting outside re-cuffed Mark who was looking completely mortified at having been hustled Liam's phone began to ring. He took his mask off when he reached the store floor and saw it was Max, when he answered it though he couldn't make out what was happening. Max was speaking so fast that his words were blurring into one,

"Wow wow wow Max slow down. Max, Max I can't understand you. Are you alright?"

There was more unintelligible sounds but he did make out museum.

"Where are you the museum? Stay there I'll be there soon"

"Everything alright sir?"

"I don't know Alex, Max is in some sort of panic. Call the director and let her know what we've found, you're in charge until I get back"

* * *

AN - I had planned for a set amount of things to happen for this chapter, however it has rapidly grown and so i will be splitting it between two chapters. It should be out early next week.


	28. (Arc 2) Chapter 10

A large group of mammals, visiting the city as part of a tour group for the over 60's from Europe, had just finished their tour of the museum and were sat in a spacious cafe across the road from it. They were looking forward to a bite to eat before heading on to their next stop, while they waited for their food to arrive many of them were talking about the strange wolf that had been in the museum's new exhibit, he had been very keen to stay outside the place while also keeping an eye on it and when the staff had tried to talk to him he had given them the cold shoulder and even scared one of the younger staff members away with his rather sharp tongue. Their food had started to arrive and they were tucking in when they heard the wiling of approaching sirens and a marked ZBI cruiser slid to a halt at the base of the steps. A Lion got out and pulled something out of the back seat as two unmarked cruisers slid to a halt next to it and four other mammals got out, the five of them ran up the steps and into the museum as the tour group watched with interest.

In the entire time that Liam had known Max he had never once heard him panic before, usually when something was happening that made people panic he would go very quiet as he assessed the situation but this time something had really spooked him. As he had sped across the city from the carpet store he had received a call from Claire, Alex had updated her on what was happening and she said she would rather be safe than sorry as they didn't know what had spooked Max so she was sending assistance for him. He knew the four agents that had been sent, none of them were very experienced in the field but with their resources stretched thin with the raids she was scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for help, never the less any help could be valuable if it turned out to be something nasty. As they headed through the front door, with their paws on their holsters ready for trouble, they couldn't hear anything untoward going on. It was very quiet, there were a number of mammals on days out looking at the various displays but there was noone who seemed in distress, nor could he see Max. Liam relaxed a little and took his paw away from his holster and the others followed suit as they spotted it, he took out his cell and tried to call Max but he couldn't get an answer. Quietly so as not to spook anyone else, as some of the visitors and staff had seen them enter in a less than casual manner, he turned to the agents following him and said,

"Turn your radios to channel 42 and split up, search the area but keep it quiet. If you see anything call me"

They nodded in agreement, staying with their partners they each took a wing of the museum and began their search for Max. With both of the partners heading to the western wings Liam headed to the eastern wing, it didn't take him long to notice something that made him mouth wtf. Hanging to the side of an exhibit entrance in the eastern wing was a large banner with a female sand cat on it, it was the symbol on her staff that he recognised though. When it had been decided that Max would work with the ZBI the senior agents including him had been issued with a file. The file contained every scrap of information that they had on Max at the time, including detailed photographs of his wounds, the branding and the collar around his neck. Liam had committed the file to memory before destroying it, as per Jacks instructions, but there was no way he could be mistaking the symbol for anything other than those burned into Max. As he stepped through the archway into the exhibit he could see two mammals in their early twenties wearing green jumpers with staff written on them stood next to wide structural pillar as they peaked further in where Liam couldn't see. They were talking in hushed whispers but they weren't doing a very good job of keeping quiet in the empty exhibit.

"When's he going to leave?"

"I don't know. Did you hear what he said to Denise?"

"Yeah. Poor girls crying her eyes out."

"Do you think we should call the police?"

"He hasn't done anything wrong, he was a bit brash but he hasn't tried to hurt anyone?"

"He's probably high, or drunk"

"I dunno man, I couldn't smell anything earlier"

Liam quietly walked up behind them and cleared his throat, the two mammals a female and male jackal jumped out of their skins and had the look of a deer in a headlight when they turned to face him. Before they could say anything Liam put a finger to his mouth and shushed them, they nodded and stared at him wide eyed. Liam looked where they had been looking and spotted Max stood across the room from a glass display cabinet, he was staring at it intently like it was an adversary that he couldn't let out of his sight. Liam pulled out his ID and whispered to the two jackals,

"You two should probably go find something else to do"

"Its about that guy isn't it"

"Yes, nothing to worry about though. Now go on with you"

The pair made a quick but quiet exit. Liam called over his radio to the two searching groups and let them know where Max was, not knowing fully what this was about he told them to wait outside the exhibit and to stop anyone coming in. He gave it a few minutes for them to get to the entrance and when he was sure that noone else was here he cautiously walked towards Max.

He had expected some sort of acknowledgement that Max knew he was there, a twitching of an ear or a change in his posture, but there was nothing. When he got within a few feet of him he called out his name, but there was no response. He just kept staring at the strange looking orb in the cabinet opposite him, now that he was closer Liam could see that the orb fit the description of what Max had said Sokolov used to bring them to this world. He was beginning to get a sense of what had set Max off on the phone, and he was getting worried that he looked so fixated on it. Deciding to snap him out of it Liam stood between Max and the orb and snapped his fingers a few times in front of his face, it took a few seconds for Max to come back to the real world and he shook his head a couple of times before looking Liam in the eyes.

"Are you alright Max?"

Max took a couple of steps back and turned his back on the orb,

"No. No i'm not. For the first time since coming here Liam I am completely lost"

"What do you mean?"

"Look around you Liam, notice anything familiar?"

He pointed at the symbol atop the staff in a case not far from the orb before lifting the front of his shirt up and showing his branding.

"Explain this to me Liam, cause I sure as hell don't have a fucking clue"

"Could be a coincidence"

"Coincidence? Liam do you really think that, look at the details, look at the writing. The tour guide started reading a passage that they found and I knew what he was going to say before he did, it's the motto of my bloody order. And that orb? It shouldn't even exist here"

"Why do you say that?"

"It's a Thirin artefact, they haven't even been to your world yet there's one here. And that women, the one that's been dead for thousands of years. She's my boss, the head of my order. Nothing here, none of it, makes any fucking sense, and I feel like i'm loosing my mind"

"Maybe there's an explanation for this"

"There's got to be something that's for sure, but what? Every time I try to work it out I feel my head frying"

"Alright calm down, lets look at it bit by bit. I know you have refused to tell us about your world since you don't particularly like it but I think we need to put that aside. You said our world and your world were similar yes? How similar?"

"I cant tell you much about outside this city, haven't had much of a chance to explore with everything going on. I only ever visited my version of this city once and that was only for a few days when I was hunting Sokolov. From what I've seen the layout is mostly the same, there's some areas where it differs and there are more high rises in mine, but other than the grime and the military checkpoints its roughly the same"

"How about the mammals, have you met anyone that is a mirror of someone from your world shall we say?"

"No, nobody I've met is the same"

"Are you sure?"

Max sighed and slumped down on the floor with his back against the display case of the sarcophagus,

"Believe me I'd know, everyone here's much happier than back home"

"Whys that?"

"We've been waging war against the Thirin for over 300 years, everyone's tired of the fighting and the fear. Everyone puts on a brave face but you cant go out of your house without wondering if today will be the day that they attack where you live or work. Their monsters, they kill everything in their path, young or old, strong or weak, it doesn't matter to them, we're all targets"

"That's a long time to fight a war"

"One day we're all leading a peaceful, or moderately peaceful life, when the sky tears open and shits out something from our nightmares. Destroys the city it lands on and takes a foot hold we still haven't been able to clear. Imaginatively the government called The Event, changed everything"

"That's why your dates are AE rather than AD isn't it"

"Yup, apparently not much has changed since then though most of our records have been destroyed. With so many of our resources being funnelled to the war effort we haven't advanced much, everything's put on hold till we win"

Liam looked at the displays slowly as he listened to Max, he muttered to himself as he thought,

"300 years...haven't advanced..."

The ringtone on Max's phone distracted him from his thoughts, Max pulled his cell from his pocket and looked at the caller ID,

"It's Vicki"

"Maybe she's found something"

He accepted the call.

* * *

Vicki was having a tough day, she had been in the labs since two in the morning going over the lab results for the unknown infection that was affecting the bombing victims so that the raid teams had the most up to date information. After finishing the report by six she gave it to Claire to look over, she approved the report and had it prepared for everyone but Vicki didn't have time to attend the meeting, she had to tend to her daily duties as head of the science division making her responsible for every lab under ZBI control of which there were several small satellite laboratories specialising in different fields, as well as lecturing twice a week at the academy for all prospective candidates wanting to work in her division. Like Claire Vicki took a paws on approach to everything, and not to be outshined by her who Vicki saw as a someone with a stick up her ass, she tried to get involved with everything, this meant lots of late nights and early starts and the cheetah in her late twenties was going through two packs of energy drinks on average a day. Today was no exception and by the time she had finished her lectures and stopped to eat a sandwich in the academy's cafeteria she was already on her sixth can when she received a call from Ileana Comtois, a good friend of hers from her university days. Ileana, a leopard with unusually light coloured fur and few spots, was herself in a high position. She was head of the Sahara General Hospitals Isolation Team and was responsible for the care given to and the containment of the victims of the bombing who had become infected.

"Hey Vicki it's Ileana"

"Oh hey, how have you been? I haven't spoken to you for months"

"Yeah it's been a while, I'm doing okay, yourself?"

"Busy as usual with everything happening in the city"

"I bet. Are you free this afternoon to come to the Sahara General? Around 3pm?"

"um ,i'm sure I can clear my schedule for a bit, what's up?"

"I'm sure you've seen the memo from us about the bombing patient that died this morning"

"Yeah I did, sorry to hear about it"

"Thanks. Because we still don't know what it is yet we're going to be conducting an autopsy later today, and me being the boss the administrator has decided that i'm doing going to be the one to do it"

"Ouch, is Philip being a hard ass again?"

"Everyday. Would you mind coming down and watching? It might keep him off my back long enough to get it done without me trying to kill him"

"Yeah I'll be there, it could give me something to work on as well"

"Thanks Vicki, we start at 3, don't be late. Au revoir."

"Bye"

Vicki looked at the time, it was 12:30, with half an hours drive to the hospital that gave her just under two hours of time to grade some papers before she would have to set off. After finishing her lunch and heading to lecture theatre that she liked to use for her office when at the academy she got to work on the huge stack of papers that had been accumulating in multiple cardboard boxes. She had a tendency to leave these things to the last minute and she was now trying to catch up on nearly a months worth of assignments and lab reports, usually she would manage it in one afternoon but with her schedule now changed she was rushing through them. She was so focused on getting as many marked as possible that she almost failed to notice her alarm go off, it rang several times before she realised that she wasn't imagining it and she realised she had to leave right now to get to the hospital in time. With little ceremony she swept the papers she had taken into her satchel and dashed out of the room to her car. On a normal day at this time in the afternoon she would have no problem getting to the hospital in time, only she hadn't taken into account what day it was. With so many raids being conducted across the city by the ZPD and ZBI they had closed of several main roads causing congestion throughout the city. This was made worse with a number of impromptu remembrance celebrations for the victims of last years bombing causing there to be more pedestrian traffic walking in and out of the roads causing a knock on effect for traffic. After a lot of shouting and swearing as her highly caffeinated system looked for an outlet she managed to get into the hospitals parking lot and wrangle a parking space. She dashed through the staff only entrance around the back which she used on several occasions when visiting on work related matters and signed in at the visitors book. As she ran through the corridors she almost ran headlong into an orderly who was pushing a cart of pharmaceuticals through a door but she managed to squeeze through the small gap just in time. Finding her way through the maze of corridors, that she was glad she knew like the back of her paw, she managed to quickly get to the changing room that lead into the autopsy room in the basement. She quickly dumped her coat and satchel and grabbed a doctors coat out and threw it on, she pinned her ZBI ID to it and headed into the observation room as she played with the collar of her coat that had become twisted. She wasn't really paying attention as she fiddled with the collar but a familiar and grating voice made her almost roll her eyes back in her head.

"Doctor Clawhauser, better late than never"

"Got caught in traffic, it's only 15:10"

"Next time if your going to be late don't bother turning up, we have a lot of work to do and I'd rather not have any delays because of a _guest_ "

"If you have work to do then why are you here?"

"This is my hospital I go where I please. This infection is serious, it needs someone with competency to oversee it"

"Shove a sock in it Philip, you always were a blowhard"

"If you wish to remain here then you need to treat me with some respect"

"You know full well this is a ZBI investigation, if you want to make a complaint you can have a chat with Claire if you'd like"

Philip stiffened at the mention of Claire,

"Just be punctual next time"

Philip used to work in the ZBI labs with Vicki until their predecessor and head of the division retired, Philip had tried to convince Jack to promote him to take his place and had even tried to discredit Vicki. Claire had walked in on one of his discussions with Jack and didn't like what she was hearing, she verbally tore into him and it was one of the few times that everyone in the office had heard Claire yell in anger. Philip quickly tendered his resignation and he soon left to work at Sahara General. Vicki still didn't get on with Claire that well as they were complete opposites on most things outside of work but she definitely respected her, and she liked that she got under Philips skin.

The observation room was a semi circular room with glass windows that went floor to ceiling that was cantilevered above the autopsy room. It had enough room for around twenty mammals and was used mostly to teach new coroners and surgeons by allowing them to view a body being worked on without being close enough to smell it. There was an intercom built into a desk at the front of the room that linked to a headset that would be worn by the coroner or surgeon in the main room ten feet bellow. In the room was a single metal autopsy table that was large enough to accommodate an elephant, it was massively oversized for the lion that was lying on the table, he looked horrendous, his fur had fallen off in large patches and the skin that remained was blackened with rotting sores. Stood next to the table in a green hazmat suit with a full head respirator was Ileana, every inch of her body was covered in some sort of containment clothing and there was a cart of surgical tools next to her. Vicki couldn't see her face with all the protective equipment but she knew it was her, she stood next to the intercom and pressed the microphone button,

"Hey Ileana"

"Hi Vicki, was wondering if you'd make it"

"Sorry traffic was crazy, loads of streets are closed"

"Well you're here now. Mind starting the recording?"

"Sure"

She pressed another button on the box and a red light came on above the door that said _recording in progress_ , Ileana could see a small screen mounted on the wall below the observation room that let her know that there was a video feed running and she began to dictate while she worked as Vicki and Philip looked on.

"It's 15:15pm August 10th 2025, Doctor Ileana Comtois conducting autopsy on patient 3 from the park infection group. Subject is a male lion believed to be in his late 40's, slim build, no markers for significant health problems prior to admittance. I'm going to begin by removing the fur covering the front of the subject to allow for detailed examination"

She took a set of electric clippers from the cart and flicked the switch, there was a rapid clicking as the blades moved back and forth rapidly and the strange sound echoed around the room as she methodically shaved every inch of fur from the lions body, she was extra careful not to disturb the nasty looking sores that he was covered in. She scoop large pawfulls of fur into bright yellow bags labelled biological hazard and made sure they were properly sealed before continuing. She picked up a scalpel from the cart and put the blade against the upper chest of the lion.

"I'm making a Y incision below the clavicles"

As she began to cut across the lions chest the lights in the room flickered and the monitor turned off. Ileana stopped what she was doing,

"Philip the monitors off"

"Audio recordings off as well, probably a power surge gimme a minute"

As Philip played with the system to try and get it to restart the lights flickered again and he shuddered.

"Christ its cold, I thought I had the heating on"

Ileana's confused voice crackled over the intercom as static played over the speaker,

"Guys is it just me or can you hear whispering?"

Vicki's eyes went wide as she realised what was happening, it was the same as last year. She yelled out into the microphone,

"Ileana get out of there!"

"What, what's going on?"

"Just do it! Get out now!"

"ah shit"

She dropped the scalpel on the table and shuffled towards the door, the protective equipment was heavy and greatly reduced her ability to move quickly. She was halfway to the door when the lights went out completely, there was a loud clang as the cart fell over and its contents scattered across the floor, Ileana spun around to where the sound was coming from but couldn't see anything in the pitch black. Suddenly the lights came back on in full and stood only at arms length from her was the lion, the large incision she had made was seeping thick jet black liquid. It's eyes were solid black and it snarled at her as she screamed in fear, it lunged into her and forced her back slamming her into the wall. She lost her footing and fell to the ground, as she tried desperately to crawl to the door it grabbed her by the scruff of the back of her clothing and pulled her up, she waved her arms at it and tried to get free but it's grip was like a vice. With its other paw it tore the front of her protective suit open and bit into the base of her neck before throwing her to the floor. There was a sickening gargling as she tried to breath, blood pulsed from the many puncture wounds. It happened so fast that Philip and Vicki could do nothing but yell as they watched, frozen from the shock of seeing her friend attacked Vicki couldn't move and it was Philip who was first to get out. He barrelled out of the observation room door and ran towards the elevator, by the time Vicki had recovered he was already down the other end of the corridor. She called out for him to stop but he ignored her, he reached the elevator and pushed the buttons wildly until the familiar ding signalled the door opening. He didn't wait for her and pressed for the hospitals second floor, where the security office was. As the doors began to close Vicki was still halfway down the corridor, he breathed a sigh of relief as they drew closer together, it was short lived however as the lion puppet charged out of the corridor that lead from the autopsy room as it roared gutturally, Vicki slid to a stop as she just saw the start of the lion savagely beating Philip as he yelled in pain before the doors closed. Her heart was beating like there was no tomorrow, but it only beat faster when she heard a gargled snarl from where the lion had run. Slowly trudging round the corner in a badly damaged protective suit was Ileana, her eyes were blank and greying, her white shirt below the suit was covered in blood but her wounds were now seeping a dark ooze that looked clotted and was falling off her in clumps. Tears welled up in Vicki's eyes as she watched her friends lips purse back in a snarl at her. She barely had enough time to react as Ileana charged at her, it was only due to Vicki's nimbleness and the inflexibility of Ileana's suit that stopped her from being pinned to the wall. Vicki ran as fast as she could towards the locker room where she had left her stuff and slammed the door behind her, she flipped the lock just in time as Ileana slammed into the door causing it to shake in it's hinges. Vicki grabbed the locker closes to the door and put her whole weight against it and after hitting it with her shoulder a few times it fell against the door frame with a loud thud preventing the door from opening. She could hear the relentless onslaught Ileana was waging against the heavy wooden door, her snarling was barely being muffled by it at all. Vicki's tears were streaming down her face as she grabbed her bag and tipped it out onto the floor, it was full of junk that had found it's way into there and she hadn't gotten around to emptying it, she rummaged through the pile and found her cell, there was only one person who she knew had killed one of these before and so shakily she scrolled through her contacts and dialled Max. It rang for what seemed like forever before it was answered. In the museum Max was sat on the floor against the sarcophagus display while Liam stood not far from him, his head resting against it as his head swam with confused thoughts, his mind quickly focused however when he heard Vicki's voice, it was full of terror and it was obvious right off the bat that she was crying.

"Max you gotta help me!"

"Vicki what's wrong?"

Liam turned around with interest and Max put he call on speaker so he could hear,

"There's been another one, it killed my friend"

"Another what?"

"Puppet, there's another puppet. It's one of the bombing victims, it woke up and..You gotta come help"

"Where are you?"

"Savanna General autopsy level, there's more than one Max it's spreading"

Max and Liam could clearly hear the sound of Ileana as she continued to try and break down the door.

"Are you safe?"

"For now, I don't know how long the door will hold though. It's the infection, whatever was in that bomb.."

She yelped and the line went dead.

* * *

AN - More to come soon.


	29. (Arc 2) Chapter 11

Liam slid his cruiser between the traffic as he pushed the vehicle hard to get through, the lights and sirens were wailing but it was rush hour and the roads were getting more and more congested the closer they got to the hospital that was in the heart of the densely built up business quarter for the district. The two unmarked cruisers were having an even greater difficulty as many drivers saw them as normal vehicles that were trying to force their way through the gaps that Liam was making and they kept getting blocked in. Liam had locked the radio into the paws free mode and was calling Claire to try and get more units to the hospital as fast as possible while Max was unlocking the shotgun that sat between the front seats.

"We're at fifth avenue now we'll be there in 10 minutes"

"I cant get units there that fast, their tied up with raid security it'll take me half an hour to get anything to you"

"So get the ball rolling, if these things get out then we're all up shit creak"

"Alerts gone out, until they arrive you're on your own. How many of you are there?"

"six including Max"

"How many puppets?"

"One"

Max managed to unhook the shotgun and he took a pack of shells out of the glove box, without looking at Liam he began loading shells and asked,

"What species was the victim that died?"

Liam looked dumbstruck for a moment, he had read the report but wasn't sure,

"Claire?"

"Looking. He was a lion"

"Then there's at least two puppets, that snarl in the background of Vicki's call wasn't a lions"

"Are you sure?"

"Claire this is what I did for a living, I know what i'm talking about"

There was a momentary pause,

"I'm going to defer to you Max, any suggestions on handling this?"

"Seal off the hospital and detain anyone coming out"

"You kidding me? Do you know how many mammals are in there on average?"

"Would you rather this be spreading on the street?"

"Alright I get it. I'll tell the first unit on scene to set up barricades. Anything else?"

"Get your heaviest armed people down here, and tell them not to hesitate cause they wont get a second chance"

"Okay. Good luck"

Max released the open mic button and sat back with the shotgun resting in the foot well. He held onto the door as Liam skid sharply around a truck as he shot down the highway, he knew from the buildings they were passing that they weren't far now.

"Christ, this is gonna be bad isn't it?"

"Yup. Your former military aren't you Liam?"

"Yeah it was a requirement for all the senior commanders when I joined"

"See much combat?"

"I was a combat engineer, five years front line operations, why?"

"This is going to get ugly quickly, I just wanna know you wont freeze up on me"

"Don't worry about me"

Liam rounded the last corner and slammed the breaks on bringing the cruiser to a stop just inside the hospitals grounds, there were mammals everywhere panicking and running as far as they could get from the doors. There were no other units there yet and they could here the two cruisers that had left the museum with them still trying to get through the traffic. Max tossed the shotgun over to Liam who caught it and quickly shouldered it,

"Don't you need it?"

Max put his paw under the back of his shirt and pulled out his pistol,

"I got this, use my claws if I have to"

Liam looked around in disbelief as they pushed against the crowd to reach the front door, Liam shoved a yak who ran right at him without looking where he was going and it fell to the floor hard, it pulled it's long dreadlocks away from it's eyes. Liam hadn't seen a mammal that scared in many years, the yak didn't wait long and it scrambled across the floor before getting up on its legs and running fast to the road entrance. Liam shouted to Max who was several yards ahead of him,

"How the hell are we going to contain this?"

They heard shots ring out from inside the building and a window on the third floor shattered as a hippo in a security uniform that was being grabbed by a bear in a hospital gown fell from it. The pair hit the concrete paving with a sickening thud. Max spun to face them with his gun raised as he walked towards them, Liam quickly ran over to him and watched as the bear made a gargled roar as it sat up onto its knees over the crushed hippos body, the bears lower jaw was broken and hanging off on the left, its eyes were black and thick black liquid dripped from its jaw and the three bullet wounds in it's chest. It looked at Max then at Liam, suddenly it was on it's feet and charging Liam before he knew it, it's right leg had a compound fracture at the shin but it didn't slow it down at all and it roared like a wild animal as it charged with it's claws out. Two shots rang out before Liam could bring the shotgun up, the bear stumbled and fell to the ground just in front of Max, two holes in its head leaked more black liquid as it spasmed on the floor.

"You alright?"

Liam had to shake his head as he took in what just happened,

"Uh yeah i'm good, shit are they all that fast?"

"Some are faster"

"That's a bear, there were no bears on the victim list"

"Then it's spreading fast, keep your eyes open, oh and shoot them in the head or the heart if you can, uses less bullets"

Liam nodded, he couldn't get his head around what he was seeing at the moment, he had read the report about the morgue encounter last year but even with the detailed accounts from everyone who was there seeing somebody affected like that was unreal. There was another roar from behind them and they spun around to see a wolf that was covered in deep dark coloured slashes grab a sheep as she ran out of the entrance, the wolf reared back its head and opened it wide but before it could take a bite out of the terrified sheep Liam let off a blast from the shotgun and took the wolfs head clean off at the jaw, the decapitated body fell against the wall as he racked the slide. The two cruisers that had been following them screeched to a halt behind Liam's cruiser and the four agents got out, two of them had the shotguns from their cruisers in paw while the others had their sidearms drawn, Liam yelled out to them as he pointed to the door he and Max were stood next to.

"Secure this entrance, anybody looks like these" he pointed to the bear and the wolf "you shoot them on sight"

"Liam we gotta go"

He followed Max into the reception area where patients signed in or were directed to different departments, what would usually be a busy room that saw to hundreds if not thousands of patients a day now only had a few terrified mammals running for the main entrance as they screamed and cried. Liam and Max let them pass and once it seemed like noone else was coming this way Liam tried to shut the double doors behind them but nothing moved, a green light on a box that the door was against was on,

"shit, cant shut the door"

"Why not?"

"Electro magnets, doors only shut when a lock-downs enabled"

"How do we trigger it?"

Liam opened a door that led behind the reception counter, he pulled a wooden slide across that was covered in sticky notes and on the wall behind it there was a map of the building. He skimmed his finger over a list running down the side before tapping it,

"Security room on the second floor, Max look out!"

Max spun around just in time to see a tiger charging at him, he had a suit on and it was covered in blood from a slice across his throat that looked like he had been clawed. He slammed his foot into the tigers shin causing it to stumble as he spun it into the reception counter head first, he kicked its legs fully out from under it as it tried to claw at him making him fall flat on his front before Max stamped hard on the back of it's head. There was a loud crunch as the tigers face caved in from the force and it stopped moving. He had little time to recover however as a rhino and a puma charged down the corridor towards him. He dove to the side as the rhino barrelled through the reception desk barely missing Liam as he pressed himself against the wall, Max rolled onto his back just as the puma jumped onto him. He grabbed the puma by the throat with one paw as the other pushed against it's chest as he wrestled to force it off him, it slashed wildly at him and tore through his shirt with ease as it scraped against his body armour as it constantly tried to bite him. He had fought puppets many times back home but he had never seen them this angry and feral before, they were certainly more volatile than the bull that had attacked him last year. He could hear more of the reception area being trashed as the rhino tried to attack Liam and he could tell Liam was struggling to get distance between them even without seeing him. Max rocked from side to side and managed to shift his weight enough to force the puma over enough for him to flip him over face down. Giving the puma no time to wriggle free Max grabbed it in a head lock from behind and pulled back as he crushed it with all his strength, there was a disgusting pop as the puma's neck snapped, but it didn't kill it. It continued to flail as it tried to free itself from his grasp, unable to reach his gun that had been knocked from his paw he dug his long claws into the side of the pumas head along the temple line, it writhed long enough for him to kick it away and slide across the floor, grab his gun and fire a round into it's face as it turned to face him, the round blew a hole out the back of the pumas head spraying black blood against the cream coloured walls of the reception. There were two shotgun blasts in quick succession followed by a dull thud, he couldn't see Liam or the rhino who had chased him from the reception area in the fight.

"Liam you alright?"

He couldn't hear an answer, concerned for Liam he quickly got onto his feet and headed down the corridor from where the two had appeared, the body of the rhino lay flat on it's front in a pool of black blood, half of it's head was missing.

"Liam!"

He could hear a panting noise coming from the room next to where the rhino was laying, what little was left of the door was hanging off the hinges. An exhausted voice called from the room,

"Here!"

Max cautiously moved around the corner with his gun at the ready, he didn't want to be snuck up on again, and saw Liam sat on a pile of boxes with wooden splinters lying on the floor in front of him, he had his paw under his body armour as he wheezed,

"Christ you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just knocked the wind out of me, these doors are harder than they look"

"You gonna be okay?"

Liam took his paw out and got up gingerly as he picked his shotgun up, he took a deep breath and let it out sharply.

"Lets go find that control room"

More gunshots ran out from outside and they could hear sirens in the distance beginning to approach.

"Sounds like they found another entrance"

"We need to get this place sealed quickly, we'll take the stairs, elevators will be a death trap"

"Agreed, I'll take point with this"

Slowly they moved down the corridor as they looked for the door leading to the stairway, constantly keeping their eyes and ears pealed for any signs of movement. The inside of the hospital had fallen pretty quiet and it unsettled Liam, he was no stranger to violence and in his time at war and at the ZBI he had seen some horrific things, the worst that mammals had to offer, but he hadn't seen anything like these puppets first-hand before, he was beginning to understand why Max didn't like to talk about his world that much. After a minute they found the entrance to the stairwell, Liam opened it as quietly as possible and listened carefully as the two of them crept inside. With no sign of anyone else being there Max quietly closed the door and they moved their way up to the second floor,

"Tell me Max, are there usually this many of them when you work?"

"sometimes, but I haven't seen them act like this before"

"How so?"

"The ones I've fought before are intelligent to some extent, these ones just seem feral attacking anything that isn't one of them"

"Any idea why?"

"None, but if I find Sokolov I'll ask him why"

More gunshots echoed through the stairwell from the floors above as they reached the door to the second floor,

"Sounds like there are other guards around"

"We can help them after"

Liam cautiously turned the handle of the door and quietly pushed it open an inch. He couldn't see or hear anybody so he opened the door enough to step through and Max quickly followed. This floor housed the security room and the x-ray department, it was usually busy with patients being carted back and forth from the various other wards at all hours of the day, now however it looked like a war zone. There was blood and spent bullet casings everywhere as well as several bodies with various degrees of injury, as they made their way past overturned gurneys and smashed vending machines Liam whispered,

"These ones aren't moving"

"I guess it doesn't effect everyone"

"Vicki only called us fifteen minutes ago, does it usually spread this fast?"

"No. Faster transformation, more aggression, I think we're in new territory here"

"That doesn't fill me with confidence Max"

"You asked. Where do we go from here?"

"End of the corridor and turn left, should be in front of us"

The corridor ran the full length of the building and the stairwell exited into the middle. As they headed further along it Max picked up the sound of something rustling from around the corner. He signalled for Liam to slow down and he peaked his head around just enough to see. Lying on the ground in front of an open elevator, that couldn't close because its legs was in the door, was a deer who looked like he had been savagely beaten, he was covered in blood and claw marks and one of it's arms was bent off to one side at an unnatural angle as it tried to pull itself across the floor with it's good arm, but it couldn't get it's leg free of the elevator door. Max waited for a moment until it turned it's head to face him, only when he saw the grey eyes that were starting to turn black did he fire at it hitting it square in forehead with a single shot. With no other signs of any threats nearby they rounded the corner and found the security room door, it had been battered and was covered in bloody paw marks and claw grooves but the closed door was made of a hefty metal and still stood strong. Max turned the handle but it wouldn't open, he tried a couple of times but it refused to budge,

"Damn things locked"

"Let me try"

Liam handed him the shotgun and he Max kept their backs covered, he could hear Liam rattling something behind him and he stepped back enough to see what he was doing as well as cover them. In Liam's paw was a strange looking contraption, it had a handle and trigger like a pistol but instead of a barrel there were three metal prongs sticking out, each one had smaller prongs coming off in different directions.

"What's that thing?"

"It's called a dead key, unlocks most key locks below a certain grade"

He inserted the prongs into the keyhole and pulled the trigger a few times until there was a satisfying click, he pulled the handle down and he opened it with a smirk on his face. As he put the key back inside a concealed pocket on his body armour he said,

"Don't tell Claire about this, i'm not supposed to have one"

"I didn't see anything"

Liam took out his pistol just in case and the two of them entered the security room, he quickly realised it was unnecessary however as the room was empty, whoever the puppet had been trying to get at had already left. The place was mostly intact with just a stack of papers strewn across the floor to show anything abnormal had happened, there was still a steaming cup of coffee on the desk next to a bank of security monitors. Liam pulled one of the office wheel chairs over to the computer in the centre of the monitors and started typing away,

"C'mon where is it...aha"

He clicked on something and a five loud beeps went over the PA system throughout the hospital followed by a computerized female voice,

"Y _our attention please, the hospital is now in security lock-down, for more information please see section supervisors_ "

They watched as numerous access doors throughout the hospital automatically closed themselves along with all of the windows on the first two floors. Max snorted in a half chuckle as he dryly said

"heck of a system they have here"

"most of our hospitals have attack prevention systems like this, after several gun attacks a few years ago the state made it mandatory"

"Well it was a good investment"

Liam started cycling through the cameras and pointed to one that was showing the front parking lot of the hospital, there were dozens of emergency vehicles outside, most looked like ZPD patrol cars and not the heavy hitters they needed.

"Backups arriving slowly"

"Good we're gonna need it. Any sign of Vicki?"

He kept cycling through the cameras but most of them were showing static, he slapped his paw against the desk in frustration,

"Most of buildings cameras are dead, I got the corridor only, autopsy room and locker room are out"

"Can you direct me there at least, from here?"

"What? I'm coming with you Max"

"No your not, we're fighting blind here without this Liam. Plus I'm a Thirin, immune to this, you aren't, if you get attacked then you could end up as one of them"

"I put my life on the line every day Max, I'm not afraid to die"

"I'd rather you not either way"

Max looked around and grabbed two radio's off a charging cradle and handed one to Liam,

"I need you to be my eyes out there, let me know what's coming up"

"You really want me to sit this out"

"When the reinforcements do arrive they aren't going to be able to get in, they need someone to lift the lock-down for them and they're going to need help like I do, somebody has to stay"

Liam clenched his fist and held it up like he was going to hit the monitor in front of him for a moment before relaxing and turning the radio on,

"Alright we do it your way, channel six looks free"

"Channel six, got it"

"Max you be careful out there, I don't want to find out you're wrong about your immunity"

Max nodded at him and quickly headed out of the room, Liam bolted the door after him and put the radio's earpiece in as he sat down behind the monitors, his pistol on the desk next to him. He watched as Max headed back the way they came towards the staircase as Liam brought up a floor plan of the hospital.

"Max can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear"

"You need to head to back of the building and use the service access to get to the autopsy room"

"Can't go back where we came from?"

"Afraid not"

"Okay how do I get there?"

"Take the next right, then the second left and you should see it at the end of the corridor. If I see anything heading your way I'll let you know"

"Understood"

Luckily for Max whatever puppets had been on this floor had moved on to different areas, however that meant there would more than likely be more of them soon. As Max reached the end of the corridor and headed into the service lift Liam's ZBI radio went off,

"Liam are you there?"

"Alex, where the hell are you?"

"We're pulling into the street next to the hospital on the west side, what do you want us to do?"

"Form a barricade, these things are spreading rapidly, anybody who's bitten or clawed seems to be turning"

"Fuck me. How do you tell"

Alex's transmission turned into a deafening orchestra of automatic gunfire for around ten seconds, Liam watched through the security monitor as four patients fell out of the hospitals windows above the lock-down before quickly getting to their feet and charging the agents that had arrived with Alex, the hail of bullets from their rifles and pistols cut the puppets to shreds before he came back on,

"Never mind I know what I'm looking for. We've got three TUSK units on their way they're five minutes out"

"Good, get them set up and tell them what their looking for, when your ready call me and I'll open the front doors"

"Alright, we'll come in hard and loud"

"Good lad"

As Liam looked through more of the monitors he paused and ran his paws through the fur on his head as he saw the video from the cafeteria on the fifth floor. The hospital had been serving meals for staff and visitors when the puppets had began attacking, now the entire cafeteria and surrounding corridors were filled with them. He spotted something and quickly made sure that the camera feed was being recorded, in the middle of one of the corridor groups two lions, one that was naked and bald on his front that had a Y shaped cut in his torso, were pacing around one another like their ancestors did over territory. Suddenly the lion in janitors uniform lunged at the naked one, but the naked one grabbed it by the throat and slammed it into the floor before relentlessly punching it in the face over and over until there was just a bloody pulp left. What drew Liam's attention more though was that the rest of them stood around unmoving while all this happened, it wasn't until a civilian who had been hiding in a closet tried to sneak past them and knocked a cart against the wall that they moved, Liam couldn't watch as the group quickly caught her and began attacking her, he knew there was nothing he could do but he still felt sickened.

"Alex there's a lot of them in here"

"Where?"

"Fifth floor"

"How many?"

"I'd say over fifty"

"Holy shit"

* * *

The door to Max's elevator open as it reached the lower floor and he cautiously exited with the shotgun raised. It was cold, quiet, and it smelled like damp down here. The overhead light flickered every few seconds, it didn't affect him too much but it was distracting. He could see bloody paw pad prints leading from the autopsy room, that was to the right of the elevator, and down the corridor towards the locker room and observation room, a few yards ahead of him was part of a chemical protection suit that had the logo of the hospital printed on it, the piece looked like it had been torn and with some considerable force given what they were made out of. He stepped around it and moved as quietly as possible down the concrete floored corridor, going as far as to actively draw back the claws on his feet which were usually out at all times. When he was halfway down the corridor he could hear sobbing coming from the locker room, it's door was splintered on the floor and a badly dented respirator tank was lying on the floor next to it. He quietly pulled the slide of the shotgun back just enough to make sure that there was a round in the chamber before moving forward, when he got to what was left of the door he could see blood on it and the overturned locker that was lying on the floor the over side of it.

"Vicki"

The sobbing faulted for a moment and became sniffling instead.

"Vicki are you there?"

There was a loud sniff, a wavering voice called out

"In here"

Max moved into the locker room and quickly scanned it to make sure it was clear,he quickly relaxed when he saw her though. Sat on the floor with her back against one of the lockers was Vicki, she was rocking back and forth as she clutched her right arm close to her chest with her left paw, the fur around her eyes was soaked with tears and her eyes were red and puffy. Lying on the ground just in front of her was a leopard in a torn biological suit that matched the piece that he had seen outside in the corridor, there was a pool of blood around her head and a pair of scissors embedded down to the handle in the back of her skull. Max walked around the jaguars body and bent down next to Vicki, he wrapped his arm around her side and scooped her up as he moved her away from the corpse, it wasn't moving but he wasn't entirely sure that it was dead. He sat Vicki down on one of the benches and he crouched in front of her,

"Are you alright?"

She shook her head as more tears ran down her face,

"No I'm not. She was my friend Max...I had to..."

"It's okay, you did what you had to. What happened here?"

"Ileana was doing an autopsy on one of the victims when strange things started happening. It was like the morgue all over again, but...the lion woke up and bit her neck before running off"

"And she turned"

Vicki nodded as she whipped her right paw over her eyes, she kept her left arm against her chest.

"What happened to your arm?"

Max went to put his paw on it but she pulled away from him, he stopped for a moment and went at it again but she didn't stop him this time. She grimaced as brought the arm down and saw the underside of it, there was a dressing pad against her arm with blood patches, when he peeled it back he could see several puncture marks on her arm from sharp teeth.

"She bit my arm when I tried to get her off me"

Vicki broke down and pulled her knees up and buried her face in them as she cried. She was far from stupid, having seen her friend turn into a puppet after being bitten she knew that she would probably turn as well, and they had no idea how to stop it. Max also knew this, he didn't know what to do, one the one hand he had grown to like Vicki after their initially brash meeting and she had taken him around the city as she said she would after they had dealt with the ISB, but on the other hand if she was infected then he couldn't let her leave the hospital or risk her turning. The battle in his head raged for only a few seconds but it felt like an eternity as he decided, he put his paw on Vicki's shoulder,

"Lets get you out of here"

"But"

"no buts, we can deal with what happens later but right now I need to get you somewhere safe, these things are everywhere"

"They got out?"

"Hospitals overrun, Liam's in the security room on the second floor, C'mon"

He pulled her to her feet and called Liam over the radio,

"I've found Vicki"

"Is she okay?"

"She's injured but walking, we're heading your way now"

"Alright, one of the TUSK teams has arrived, their evacuating the area surrounding the hospital"

"How long till they come in?"

"Probably around thirty minutes"

"That's too long, I don't like it. Is the coast clear?"

Liam flicked through the monitors, the corridors for the lower levels were void of movement, the only mammals around were those that had been killed but hadn't turned.

"Looks pretty cle..Hold on something's happening"

The horde of puppets on the fifth floor all started to turn themselves to face the shaved lion as it walked towards the camera. It stopped just in front of it and Liam pointed the camera down to get a better look at it.

"What's going on Liam?"

"I'm not sure. They seem to be following.. oh shit"

Although the camera's didn't capture any sound he could tell that the lion was roaring ferociously at the camera before suddenly bolting from the room, within a second the entire horde was charging after him. The cameras showed them running throughout the hospital, they were splitting up into two groups with some of them heading to the elevator shaft that lead to Max while the rest ran to the third floor.

"Their on the move, you've got incoming"

"How many?"

"Too many, they're moving into the elevator shaft"

"Vicki is there another way out of here?"

"Only the elevator"

Max pursed his lips in frustration. He took his pistol out and held it out for Vicki,

"You know how to use one of these?"

"Kinda, I've had defence classes"

"How many?"

"3"

"well...that's better than none"

Max stood in the doorway using it as cover as he pointed the shotgun to the elevator as Vicki tried to use the overturned locker. They could hear the feral snarling of the puppets as they fell or climbed down the shaft.

Liam was watching the second group, they were running through the building looking for a way out but he had managed to lock most of the doors remotely, they were moving extremely quickly though which was making it more and more difficult for him to do. Liam grabbed his radio,

"Alex you better be ready, these things are coming your way"

"Isn't it locked down?"

"They're looking for a way out, I can't keep up"

As he tried to close down the entire floor and lock them in he heard a sharp crack and a metallic thud as the ceiling vent landed on the floor in a crumpled mess, a very slim jackal fell onto the floor a few feet from him as it screeched wildly. It scrabbled to it's feet and leaped at Liam who just managed to dodge out of the way in time, the jackal ploughed into monitors, shattering them. Liam grabbed his gun off the desk and narrowly missed having his paw bitten as the jackal snapped it's teeth rapidly at him. It lunged at him again but Liam kicked the office chair into it and it fell to the ground just long enough for him to get a clear shot, he pulled the trigger and sprayed the wall with the jackals blackened brains. As he breathed a sigh of relief the door to the security room shook as several hits were laid upon it. He saw the only remaining monitor and flicked through the channels, outside the security office a group of around seven puppets were trying to break down the heavy metal door, he looked around him and grabbed a metal filling cabinet and with great effort dragged the heavy piece of furniture across the room until it was against the door, the groups attacks were relentless and he watched as the door shook in its frame, he grabbed the radio to Max,

"Don't come to the office, I'm pinned inside"

There was no answer from him, although there was no window pointing to the outside Liam could hear the automatic fire from the TUSK team, the horde had found an exit.

In the lower levels Max was running out of ammo, he had fired off all of the shells in the shotguns magazine and was down to just the five shells he had put in the shell band on the stock, there were six dead puppets missing large chunks of their heads and a seventh that he had only wounded as it had used another puppet as cover as it charged at him. As he loaded the last of his shells he racked the slide and fired at the downed puppet finishing it off, Vicki was terrified, she had never been in a firefight before and she really didn't want to fight any more of these things after fighting Ileana. Max heard Liam's call over the radio but he didn't have a chance to answer it as another group of puppets found their way through the elevators roof access. He was expecting them to charge towards him as they came through the hatch but instead they stayed inside the elevator just out of sight, Max mumbled to himself as he kept the barrel of the shotgun trained in their direction.

"What are you up to?"

He watched them carefully climbing through one by one and hiding against the elevators walls. Occasionally one would pop it's head out for a split second but Max didn't fire, he wanted a clear shot before firing what precious little ammo he had left. He came to a nasty realisation,

"You're learning"

"Max!"

Vicki yelled out in a high pitched scream, he spun his head to here just in time to see Ileana lunge at him within arms reach, it was too late for him to get out of the way or turn the shotgun on her, all he could do was bring his arm across and grab her by the throat as she tried to bite his face. She was strong, far stronger than a normal jaguar would be and she forced him across the corridor and against the wall with a thud. She snapped wildly at him with her sharp teeth, thick dark drool ran down the sides of her mouth as she clawed at his stomach and arms to get free. There was a series of snarls and the group that was hiding in the elevator charged down the corridor towards them. He only had a couple of seconds before they would be on him, he stamped down hard on Ileana's left knee snapping it and giving him a pivot point, he used her struggling momentum to slam her head into the wall side on, she slide down the wall enough for him to kick her in the chest and sent her sprawling into the first of the puppets who toppled over her. Quickly he brought the shotgun up and shot the next closest one in the head, he racked the slide as he stepped back and shot the next one and the next one again. When he pulled the trigger for the last standing one however nothing happened, the gun had jammed. The puppet was now within arms reach and so he swung the but of the gun and smacked it hard against the side of the puppets head sending it stumbling into the wall. He dropped the shotgun as the one who had fallen over tried to get back to its feet, he grabbed a pawfull of fur on it's head and kneed it in the face hard enough to cave it's nose in, the puppet momentarily went limp, just long enough for him to put his arm around it's neck and yank up sharply, there was a loud crack as he snapped it's neck. He let the puppet go and it slumped to the floor, he turned to grab the one he had hit with the shotgun only to have the side of his face clawed deeply as the puma got the drop on him. Max yelled in pain as the wound that ran from his temple down to his chin burned, the puma took another swing at him but Max ducked just in time, he spun around and grabbed the puma's arm throwing him over his shoulder and onto the floor. Max quickly dove onto the puma and started beating the back of his head with his fists, every time the puma would put and arm out to try and push itself up Max knocked it's arm out from under it. When his paw was bloody and the puma wasn't struggling as much he got up and grabbed the shotgun like a club, he swung it over his head and brought it down with such force that it bashed a large piece of it's skull into it's brain, the only movement left from was it were spasms as it's muscles kept firing. Max panted to get his breath back when he heard another snarl, he had forgotten about Ileana, he grabbed the shotgun and went to clear the jam when there was a shot, Ileana fell to the floor as Vicki stood in the doorway looking totally shocked with Max's gun held loosely in her paw. He carefully took the gun from her paw and holstered it, he snapped his fingers in front of her face till she looked at his face, she looked disgusted at what she had done.

"Don't think about it, there'll be plenty of time for that later"

She nodded half heartedly at him, he knew she wouldn't be right after this but they had more pressing matters to attend to, they headed to the elevator and headed up to the second floor, he wasn't going to leave Liam.

* * *

Outside the hospital the police and ZBI agents were struggling to cope with the puppets, they had managed to find a way around Liam's efforts to lock them in and had smashed through the windows on the third floor. They pouring out of the broken windows like a river, hundreds of infected from the higher floors of the tower block hospital had run to join the initial horde and were overwhelming the security forces. The officers had formed a firing line as they used their cruisers for cover, but with many of them only having side arms they couldn't cope with the shear volume of puppets as they charged at them, the four agents who had been with Liam had already run out of ammo and had to fall back to the TUSK van to re-arm. Alex was doing his best to set up a barricade to try and prevent any of them from getting out, the other two TUSK units were still trying to get through the traffic as many mammals had abandoned their vehicles in panic and had blocked the roads.

"Sir you need to see this!"

The leader of the TUSK unit yelled out over the gunfire to Alex who rushed from the back of the van to see what was going on, he looked to where the agent was pointing and saw another window on the other side of the hospital on the third floor, there was a large group of puppets pounding on the window and it was cracking.

"Crap, get three of your guys up here now, they cannot be allowed to"

There was an almost explosive shattering of glass as the large window burst sending shards of glass raining to the pavement bellow, more puppets than Alex could make out came pouring out of the window and tumbled to the ground, the first few landed with a horrible crunch and didn't move, but the rest that fell onto them quickly staggered back to their feet. Alex raised his M4 and started firing at the new horde as he stepped back towards the rest of the officers, the unpredictable movement of the group made it extremely difficult to get a kill shot and bar for a couple of lucky shots all he managed to do was slow the front runners down as he hit their limbs. He fired over and over until there was the click of an empty magazine, he didn't have time to reload and ran back to the horseshoe shaped barricade of squad cars and dove over the hood of one next to the other agents who opened fire on the horde. He slammed another magazine in and quickly opened fire as well, with them being assaulted on two sides the hordes were getting closer and closer to the barricade, they were almost close enough to touch. Suddenly the new horde started to fall as more automatic gunfire rang out, Alex turned to see another TUSK unit on foot firing on the second horde as they moved around the empty cars towards the hospital, as they kept them at bay one of the agents ran over to Alex,

"Sorry we're late sir every roads blocked"

"Better late than never"

"Unit three is four minutes out, where do you need us?"

"You take that horde and we'll take this one, once unit three is here we'll make a push for the building. Do not let any of these things get outside do you understand?"

"Yes Sir"

Alex put a new magazine in and continued firing.

* * *

Having ditched the shotgun Max was now relying on his pistol, he could tell by the gunfire from outside and the savage snarling and growling echoing through the building from the floor above that things rapidly spiralling out of control and he didn't want to get into a large fight with the puppets. He kept his paw on Vicki's shoulder as he peeked his head out of the elevator and looked about, he couldn't see anyone but he could here thumping noises from the other side of the floor,

"Vicki we need to get across this floor to the security office, stay close to me and call anything out if you see it okay?"

"Okay"

Max lead the two of them through the corridors past the x-ray department and consultation rooms, they had to pass several badly injured bodies and although Vicki had seen plenty of dead bodies in her time with the ZBI with everything that was going on she couldn't stomach the look and smell of it. She was struggling to keep herself from throwing up when Max quickly pulled her by the arm and pushed her against the wall, she was going to protest until she saw him with a finger over his mouth telling her to be quiet. It was only then that she made out the thumping noise he had heard when leaving the elevator, he gestured for her to stay put and peeked around the corner that lead to the security room like before. He could see a small group of five puppets, mostly mammals his size, snarling as they stood next to the security room and watched as a black bear kept hammering away at the door which was buckling more and more with each hit. He was working out the best way to deal with it when one of the puppets raised it's head up and turned in his direction suddenly, it looked him straight in the eye and snarled loudly at him,

Oh shit

At the same time he raised the gun and began firing as they charged at him, except for the black bear which managed with one last swipe to break through the door and charge inside. Max dropped three of the group with rapid pulls of the trigger but the last mammal, a grey wolf, was too close. Max let it charge at him, he twisted round at the last minute and tried to swing it with it's own momentum into the corner of the wall head first, but it seemed to anticipate this and only ended up hitting it with it's shoulder. Max heard shots ring out form the security room as the wolf recovered quickly and dove at him again taking fistfuls of his shirt in paw locking the two together in a grapple, Max tried to dislodge the wolfs grip but it was strong like his and wouldn't budge, as they spun around each trying to get the upper hand Max stepped into a pool of blood and lost his footing. The pair fell to the ground, a sharp pain ran up Max's arm as he hit the ground hard and he lost his grip on the wolf for a split second, but it was long enough for the wolf to get on top of Max. It started hitting him relentlessly with wild punches and swipes of it's claws across his face, Max tried to shield himself and get the wolf off of him but his own punches seemed to do nothing to the wolf. The wolf suddenly stopped punching him and lunged it's face at him as he tried to bite his neck, Max managed to grab it by the throat and forced it back at arms length with one arm as he tried desperately to reach his pocket where he kept his lock-knife when there were three shots. The wolf stopped moving and it's arms went limp, Max pushed it off him to the side to see Liam leaning against the wall with his gun still aiming where the wolf had been, he looked worse for ware. Max got to his feet and grabbed his gun which had ended up sliding across the floor during the fight, he picked it up and spat out a mouthful of blood on the floor before grabbing Vicki who looked like she was spacing out and moving her over to where Liam was. Max could see Liam holding his left arm and he had a pained look on his face,

"You alright?"

"That bear sent me into a cabinet and I could my shoulder, think my arms dislocated. What's with her?"

Liam nodded towards Vicki who was slumped against the wall, her skin looked pale and she was staring into space.

"She's not doing to good, one of them bit her arm"

"Is she..."

"Don't know, this all seems different to back home"

There was a loud snarling and the turned to look down the corridor, a large group of puppets had heard the gunfire and came to see what it was, they were grouped up and slowly walking towards them as if sizing up their prey. Liam looked in disbelief,

"Oh shit, put a new mag in"

He held the but of his gun to Max who quickly put a fresh magazine into Liam's gun before doing the same for his own. Max was pointing from puppet to another as he tried to work out the best way to deal with them

"Did you manage to find a way out for us?"

"Didn't have time, got jumped after you left"

"Guess we're fighting our way out then"

The first puppet roared and the whole group charged at them, Max and Liam opened fire as fast as they could dropping the first few of the group, there was no way they could take out all of them and they both knew it. Max was ready to try and keep the group back with his claws to try and give Liam and Vicki some time when all of the puppets simultaneously fell to the ground unmoving. Max and Liam stopped in shock for a moment, there was nothing coming form the puppets, no snarling or growling, no movement of any kind, it was if their switches had all been turned off at the same time, Liam even left off a couple of shots into the group but there was nothing, even the gunfire outside had stopped as the hospital fell silent.

* * *

A few hours later the entire area was cordoned off and a five block perimeter had been established until they could determine exactly what the hell was going on. They had managed to clear a path on the roads and Claire had brought the command vehicle that they were running the raids from and it was now parked a block away from the hospital, everyone who was working to clear the bodies and secure the scene itself was now being made to wear full biological suits and two to the TUSK units were remaining on the grounds in case this was a temporary pause and the puppets decided to get back up again. After seeing a paramedic Liam found he had indeed dislocated his shoulder but the paramedic had managed to put it back in, he advised Liam to go to the hospital to be checked out but for now he put his arm in a sling and told him to rest it, Liam decided he would get it sorted but it would have to wait, he was sat at the back of the vehicle on a metal fold down bench listening to what was going on. In the centre of the rear section of the command vehicle was a large table that had a ground map of the area as well as a hospital layout projected onto it from a unit in the ceiling, Claire and four other mammals in uniforms bearing high ranks were going over a plan to ensure the hospital had been cleared properly when Max and Alex walked in. The officials paused what they were doing and Claire looked at them eagerly,

"Any news?"

Max walked over and slumped next to Liam, he rubbed the back of his paw against the three new scars he had on his face as he was sure he felt it bleeding, but there was nothing there, before answering her question.

"The hospitals been sealed, there's only one way in or out and that's through a impromptu disinfection tunnel that Daniel built as a temporary measure till we can get something more substantial, but that's going to take time according to him"

"How much time?"

"You're going to have to ask him, he's still trying to work it out"

"Hows Vicki doing?"

Max scratched the back of his paw, he didn't feel comfortable or happy.

"Badly. Her heart rate and temperature keeps spiking then dropping erratically. They don't know if she's got it. They've moved her to Saint Mary's, under armed escort"

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, all of the mammals in the vehicle from the ZBI knew her well and the ZPD officials knew of her even if they didn't know her personally. Claire turned on her office chair to look at him.

"Max, you know, if she is.."

"I know, you don't have to say it"

Claire pursed her lips for a moment before looking at the officials at the table,

"You know what to do, make sure it gets done correctly"

"yes ma'am"

The four of them got up and calmly left trying not to upset the mood any more than it already was. When Claire heard the click of the door closing behind them Claire leant back and let out a long sigh as she rubbed her face with her paws.

"You guys did an excellent job of preventing this from getting out, I have a bad feeling about this though"

Liam snarked,

"No shit"

"Look we're all tired, in more ways than one. You guys get some sleep, tomorrow we'll have a full debrief and decide how we go from there"

Max slowly got up, after everything that had happened he felt completely drained of energy and was looking forward to having a shower and hitting the sack, he gave a half wave behind him to Alex and Liam and patted Claire, who looked like she was trying to deal with more than she could cope with, on the shoulder as he past by. Alex also got up and headed after him,

"I'll bring us coffee"

"Thanks, I'm going to need it"

He headed out and closed the door behind him, Liam rubbed his arm and got up as well, Claire expected him to walk past her but he sat down on the chair next to her and waited till she looked at him, her eyes were bloodshot like his and they both looked and felt exhausted.

"You not going?"

"We need to talk"

"If this is about Me and Max not getting on it'll have to wait"

He shook his head,

"No this is more important"

She sat upright and rolled over to a cabinet built into the wall and took out two water bottles, she popped the top off one and handed it to him.

"Why do I think alcohol would be better for this conversation. What do you want to talk about?"

Liam took a sip of the water and looked thoughtful for a moment as he collected his thoughts,

"I. I don't think Max is from a different world, I think he's from our world but in the future"

"Come again? Did you bang your head as well as your arm?"

"Hear me out. From what little Max has told us about his world it sounds a lot like ours but more war-torn right? Cities have the same names, countries have the same names and all that"

"uh huh"

"When I went to meet him today before the hospital incident kicked off I found him in the natural history museums new middle eastern exhibit, I forget what it was called but that doesn't matter, what matter is what we found and what he told me. The exhibits display features a sand-cat pharaoh with a reconstructed image of her and a number of her sceptre and things like that, you following so far?"

"Yeah"

"Okay, here's were things start getting weird and it really freaked him out. The symbols on the sceptre is the same symbol stamped into his collar and burned into his chest, and the pharaoh is the spitting image of his boss. Not only that but his orders motto is the same phrase used as her battle cry. Freaky right?"

"Okay that's..Coincidence maybe I mean if he's from a copy of our world then surely some things like that would be similar"

"That's possibly true, I also have this"

He pulled his phone out and selected a picture on there, it was of the blood red orb with it's distinctive black mark down the front of it.

"I snapped that before we left"

"Is that?"

"Yeah, almost identical to the one that Sokolov used to bring them here, only this one's got a black line on it for some reason. There's more, Max told me that his world hasn't altered much in over three hundred years because they've had to pour everything into fighting this war with the Thirin, he doesn't know what things were like before it. I cant help but think that his world is what ours becomes, I think this orb somehow causes all this, it's not something we can overlook"

Claire looked at the photo again, they had no idea where he came from truly, but if Liam's theory was right then it raised horrible implications and he would be right in saying that it's something they couldn't risk ignoring.

"Okay. I'll tell the higher ups about your theory, see if they're science guys can scan it or something, try and figure this out. I have to say though Liam, I hope your wrong about this"

"I hope so as well"

* * *

Max had taken some time getting through the barriers that the ZPD had been installing for the last few hours and had managed to hail a cab back to the museum, luckily it was only a few minutes away at this time of the night and the reduced traffic from the police urging everyone to go home meant that he had got back to his car pretty quickly. After grabbing a bottle from the glove box and swilling his mouth out that still had the taste of blood in it from the split lip that the puppet had given him he started the engine. He pulled off the highway and onto the main thoroughfare that took him to the residential area where his apartment was located, being one of the only cars on the road he could see green lights ahead of him meaning he would be home soon. He leaned over and turned the air-con up to help keep him awake when there was a loud crunch as something slammed into the back of his car sending it spinning with enough force to slam his head violently against the window of the drivers door. As the car came to a halt he found himself slumped forward, his belt hadn't been taught against him as he had been leaning over and he struggled to get rid of the blur in his eyes. There was a damp feeling on the side of his head and he could just make out a red splatter on the windscreen in front of him. Slowly he pushed himself against the steering wheel until he was sat upright only to yell out as pain shot through his body as a repeating clicking sound echoed through the car. The blue flashing of the taser that had been jammed into the soft muscle between his neck and shoulder. He could just make out a figure leaning through the window, one paw on the taser and the other on his chest. With a great difficulty he brought his paw up and raked his claws down his assailants face, there was a sharp yell and it dropped the taser as it moved almost fell backwards out of the window, Max put his paw to his lower back and pulled his pistol out of its holster, but before he could use it there was two muffled cracks. He felt the impact of the two darts in his neck, the darts acted fast and his arm slumped down by his side as his gun fell to the floor of the car, the last thing he saw was the paw of a large mammal wearing a ski mask reaching into the car for him.

* * *

AN - Next one will be a bit longer coming out as i want to plan it a bit more and will be busy with work.


	30. (Arc 2) Chapter 12

Max felt a sudden shudder and a dull pain in his back, his head felt like a lead weight and all he could do was utter a moan as he was jolted to one side suddenly. As if he was under water he heard a strange voice,

"He's waking up, I thought you said he'd be out for hours"

"I said I think he would be, he's not exactly a normal mammal"

"Lot of good you are, give him another dose"

"It could kill him"

"Just do it"

He managed to open his eyes just enough to see a bright light before there was a sharp pain in his neck and everything went black.

* * *

The area surrounding Sahara General Hospital was extremely busy despite it being late at night, the ZBI had initially started moving the bodies of those who had turned into puppets back into the hospital after they had secured the area until orders were passed down to Claire from the Overseer. She had just finished talking with Liam about what Max had said at the museum and was thinking about whether it could be true or not when a convoy of four army trucks being escorted by humvees passed through the outer cordon. Both Claire and Liam recognised the distinctive sound of the trucks engines and they stepped out to see, the bulk of the convoy drove straight passed the command truck except for the last humvee that pulled up next to them. A tiger in military uniform and a deer in black trousers and shirt got out the back and headed towards them, the tiger was quick to talk as soon as he had closed the humvees door.

"Are you Director Schwartzpelz?

"I am"

"I'm Captain Darmody, Chemical Corps Quick Reaction Team. This is Doctor Jenner CDC"

They shook each others paw and Liam's as well, Claire told them to come inside and they headed into the command truck and closed out the noise of the trucks and the rest of the clean up operation. Jenner spotted an empty seat next to the table and sat at it,

"We've set up a portable intensive care unit at airport in hanger five, Doctor Clawhauser is being moved there by some of my team, she's in good paws Director"

"Call me Claire, formality can go out the window right now"

Jenner nodded at her, Darmody took a folded up piece of paper out of his uniform pocket and handed it to Claire.

"I don't like stepping on someone's toes, but higher authority has ordered us to secure the hospital and destroy any remaining threats"

Claire opened up the paper and read it, sure enough it was an official order along with overriding authority that prevented anyone, including her, from getting in the Captain's way.

"I'm happy to have an extra set of paws Captain, I would like to know what's going on though. How do you intend on dealing with this?"

It was Jenner who answered before the Captain could.

"From what I understand this all started from a single mammal, a lion who was the victim of a bombing. We need to find his body, being patient zero he may poses certain traits that will help us create some sort of vaccine"

"I don't think this is something that can be cured with a vaccine doc"

Liam, who was stood watching them quietly from behind Claire gently put his paw on her shoulder.

"You already know that don't you doctor?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Claire's been up for a long time and is very tired, I managed to get a nap however and I'm a bit more alert. Even with you guys being QRF there's no way you could get here in this short amount of time unless you already had an idea something was going on"

The Captain smirked,

"I told you he was quick Jenner. You may not remember me Liam but we served together for two years in Iraq. We were already on standby outside the city, after the infection appeared in the victims we were alerted in case it went belly up, higher authority isn't taking any chances now that Sokolov has shown his paw"

Claire looked at him with curiosity as the gears began to turn in her head, she was so exhausted and stressed with trying to control everything that it was taking it's toll on her.

"We work for the same organisation Director, don't worry you can count on us"

"Just don't try and keep us out of the loop, my people were inside when this went down and I'm not about to have this taken off us"

"I can respect that, all I care about is stopping this from starting up elsewhere. Now, I need to get my unit set up and ready to go in"

The Captain and Jenner got up and headed outside, their humvee quickly took off after the trucks that could be seen just outside the hospitals grounds with mammals taking large boxes of equipment out of the back. Liam closed the door and sat down next to Claire who hadn't moved,

"Organisation eh?"

"Liam I"

"Look Claire if you don't want to tell me what group it is that you keep going of for meetings with is then that's fine with me, just don't treat me like an idiot okay?"

She looked at him and he had a gentle look, not an annoyed one that she was expecting. She leant back and held out her paw and he shook it,

"Deal, sorry I'm still trying to get my head around everything"

"Don't worry about it, none of us expected anything like this"

There was a rapid knocking on the door that drew their attention, Claire called out,

"It's unlocked"

The door was pulled open and an agent who looked like he had just run a marathon came huffing into the truck,

"Ma'am ZPD just found Max's car, its burned out and he's missing"

* * *

The hospital was eerily quiet as Captain Darmody and his team lead the CDC group through the entrance hall, the ZBI and ZPD had begun moving the bodies of those that had become puppets from the parking lot and piled them up inside. Even though the puppets had all stopped dead at the same time Darmody wasn't convinced that these things would stay dead. As the CDC searched through the bodies looking for the lion that started this whole mess some of the Chemical Corps moved up through the building floor by floor to make sure it was still safe, their biological suits made them feel like they were underwater as most sound was muffled by the thick protective material and they had to rely on their headset radios to talk to each other and while the CDC had large clear head masks Darmody's soldiers had armoured helmets that reduced their visibility. When the team reached the third story they were shocked at what they found, a huge number of victims still hadn't made it through the two broken windows by the time their attack stopped and they were now laying on each other in two large piles, they were all horrifically injured and had thick oil like black liquid seeping from their wounds. The smell was overwhelming and although Darmody was a very experienced soldier even he felt the urge to vomit as the strongly acidic stench got through the suit.

"Crying out loud, what the hell is that smell?"

Doctor Jenner walked in behind him and coughed as the smell hit the back of his throat,

"Don't know, haven't smelt anything like this before"

Jenner walked over to one of the bodies, a small dog although its exact species was unrecognisable, and he knelt down beside it. He reached into his small carry case and took out a long tweezer like instrument.

"Could you put some light on this please?"

One of the soldiers pointed his gun mounted torch on the body and Darmody went and stood next to Jenner to see what he was doing.

"What is it doc?"

Jenner used the long tweezers to lift back the lips on the dogs mouth, the gums were ruptured and oozing as well.

"Look at the blood around the mouth, eyes, nose and ears. Tell me what you think"

"Hmmm...Ebola?"

"That would be my first guess"

"Ebola doesn't give the other symptoms though, what are you thinking?"

"Engineered strain, mixed viruses, or maybe just a base model I don't know. George take a sample and photograph it"

"Yes Doctor"

Darmody looked at the large number of bodies before turning to the team,

"Last sighting of patient zero was moving from the fifth floor downwards, all floors below the third were sealed so it's more than likely in amongst these, search this place thoroughly but be careful"

The group began to spread out and search the area while one of them crouched down next to Jenner and started taking swabs from the dog. As Darmody helped move some of the bodies that were slumped in a large pile next to one of the windows one of the soldiers called out,

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what son?"

"Listen"

Darmody waved to the others to stop what they were doing, everyone fell silent as they listened for what the young soldier had heard. They waited for half a minute but all that could be heard was the regular venting from their respirators. An older member of the team tapped the soldier on his arm with the back of his paw,

"I think you need to get out more"

They were about to go back to checking the bodies when there was a horrible crunching noise coming from down the hall, this time they didn't joke around and quickly got themselves into firing positions pointing their weapons in the direction of the sound as the CDC team stepped back. There was another cracking sound and and from around the corner slowly trudged a nightmarish figure. It looked like it may once have been a lion but it's limbs were broken and bent in different directions, instead long black growths were protruding from it's joints, it's lower jaw was completely missing and it's chest was torn open on one side, black ooze was pouring from it and leaving a trail behind it. It made a horrible gurgling noise as it stepped towards them and a dark cloud seemed to come out of it's throat like a vapour mist in the cold. Their visors quickly started to mist up and their fur stood on end as the temperature dropped rapidly. This was beyond anything that was mentioned in the reports that Darmody had read about the first puppet, and it looked nothing like the bodies that they had found so far.

"The fuck is that? Do we shoot sir?"

It took a moment but he came back to focus, he fired his rifle twice into it's chest, each round sending dark liquid splattering around them, but it didn't stop walking towards them, it didn't even slow down. He fired again at it, this time shooting it in the stomach and legs but the shots did nothing to stop it, the spray from the wounds send the ooze splattering across the ground and onto nearby bodies as the soldiers slowly backed away to keep distance between them and it. They all followed Darmody's example and fired at it hitting it with around a hundred bullets before it fell to it's knees, it wobbled for a moment before slumping down onto it's face.

"Jesus"

"Is that happens to these things sir?"

"Hell if I know. Doc you want this thing?"

"We'll case it up and take it back to the lab"

The younger soldier turned to Jenner,

"You cant be serious, you actually want this thing?"

Without warning one of the bodies behind the soldier got up and grabbed the soldier by his air tank and threw him across the room. The older one that had joked with him earlier fired into it's chest and knocked it back as three more got up and charged at them, all of the soldiers opened fire spraying bullets into the puppets as all of the ones that had been around the lion started coming back to life. One of the larger soldiers, a rhino, was leaped on by two of the puppets who began tearing at his suit. The rhino grabbed one of them and hurled it into a group of them causing them to trip making them easy targets for the rest of the soldiers. The one that remained on him lunged at his face with it's mouth open but it rebounded off the armoured visor, the rhino grabbed it by the throat and slammed it into the floor before stamping on it's head crushing it's skull. The others saw what happened and quickly changed to shooting the puppets in the head and after a short hail of bullets they managed to stop the group of roughly twenty puppets in their tracks, the rest of them remained motionless on the floor. Darmody put a fresh magazine into his gun as he called out,

"Everyone alright? Anyone hurt?"

"Jason's down"

One of the doctors was helping the young soldier to sit upright,

"I'm alright, by back hurts but I'm alright"

"His suits intact, he should be fine"

"Good. Don't let any of that black shit touch you. Tim put a bullet in each of these things heads"

"Yes sir"

"Doc you've got a couple of minutes to get that body if you still want it"

"You told me we'd have at least an hour in here"

"Plans changed doc"

He pressed the radio control and changed the channel to their control vehicle outside.

"This is Darmody, send Carl in with the goods, I want this place burned to the ground"

"He's got the flamethrower sir"

"I don't mean this floor I mean this entire building, we're burning it all to the ground"

* * *

Max awoke with a shock as a bucket of freezing cold water was thrown over him, he gasped from the shock, he shook his head and blinked hard a few times to get the water out of his eyes, he tried to lift his arms up but something heavy was baring them from moving. As the water cleared away he could see what has holding his arms down, he was sat on a metal chair that was bolted to the bare concrete floor of what looked like a very old storage room, all the walls were bare concrete and the only entrance was a metal door that looked like it belonged on the inside of a ship. His arms were lifted in front of him and resting on a raised metal table that brought them to chest height, they were being held in metal clasps that covered his entire arm but left his hands exposed, his fingers were being forced spread out by some sort of clamps but he couldn't see properly. He tried to stand up and yank his arms out from the table but he found his legs were also clasped to the chair making movement impossible, all he could do was wriggle back and forth a few inches and even with his increased strength of that of a normal mammal he couldn't budge the clasps at all.

"You're wasting your time"

A gruff voice came from behind him, the large from of a brown bear slowly walked around into view, a metal stool in his paws that he put a few feet in front of Max. The bear was wearing black trousers and jumper and looked like he lived in the gym, unlike most bears he was incredibly lean yet had large very defined muscles in his arms and legs that made him even more of an imposing figure as he towered next to Max.

"The boss would rather you be in a fit state, so conserve your energy"

"Who the fuck are you?"

The bear didn't say anything, he just quietly walked back out of Max's sight, he tried to turn to see him but he couldn't turn enough.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!"

There was a loud clunking noise and the large circular handle on the door began rotating. After a few seconds the door creaked open and a jaguar in a very expensive looking navy suit stepped into the room with a lit cigar hanging out the corner of his mouth. He took a long drag of it as he casually walked across the room and stopped next to the stool, he brushed the top of it with the back of his paw before sitting on it and letting the smoke out through his nose.

"Good morning Mr Langdon, did you sleep well?"

"Where am I?"

"Somewhere out of the way. My name is Alexander Marchenko, do you know that name?"

Max looked thoughtful for a second before sarcastically responding,

"You a tennis player?"

The jaguar chuckled,

"No Mr Langdon my work is far more important, work that was interrupted and substantially damaged by the actions of you and Mr Sokolov"

"Sorry about that bud"

"You will be"

He stood up and walked around behind Max, Max could hear him breath out another cloud of smoke and the sound of metal scrapping against metal for a moment that sent alarm bells ringing in his head. The jaguar walked back around the other side of Max with a scalpel in his paw.

"My job Mr Langdon is to maintain order and that requires me to be subtle, to operate from the shadows to not draw attention. You killed Don Victor and Major Neighland, both of whom were assets that I found extremely important. And now your friend Sokolov has killed Adrian Bogo and Admiral Morra"

Max's face contorted in anger and he spat out,

"Sokolov's not my friend!"

The jaguar stopped in front of him and bent down to meet his eyes, his eyes were cold and emotionless as he pointed the scalpel at Max's nose as he talked.

"That we will see. I would rather not have resorted to this but you two creatures have forced my paw"

He stepped back and took another drag of his cigar and let it out slowly. The bear walked around and stood next to the jaguar who placed the scalpel in the bears outstretched paw, it looked tiny in his palm.

"You will tell us about Sokolov, where he is hiding, where he plans to attack, what resources he has at his disposal, absolutely everything. But I don't expect you to tell me straight away. I'll leave you in the capable paws of Pierre, he'll keep you entertained for now. I'll come back in a couple of hours. Oh and feel free to scream as much as you like, these walls are soundproof"

He patted the bears arm and left the room, a guard who had been stood by the door closed it behind him and the handle spun around with another loud clunk as the lock engaged. The bear walked back around behind Max and he could hear the sound of him rummaging through tools, Max struggled as hard as he could but his binds were incredibly strong and they didn't budge an inch. Max watched as the bear pushed a cart with a tool box, tray of surgical equipment and various other large items in front of him. Max tried again to wrench himself free but all he got was a laugh from the bear.

"Struggle all you want, those binds were designed specially for you"

"Into that kind of thing are you?"

"Trying to annoy me wont help you out. Mr Marchenko wanted me to start with your fingers, take your claws out with one of these"

He held up a pair of pliers and clicked them together a few times before putting them down,

"But I prefer to start lower end and work my way up, a warm up if you will"

He picked up a wooden baseball bat that had several dents in it and what Max could only guess was blood that had soaked into the wood.

"Anything you'd like to say before we begin?"

"Yeah, go fuck yourself"

"Not a smart start"

The bear swung the bat across Max's head with full force.

* * *

AN - This is a shorter chapter than the last few but i felt i had to put something up, i'm working on the next chapters which will be longer with what i have planned however I have only two days off in the next eighteen days and will be away for those celebrating my 30th birthday so it may be a while before they come out.


	31. (Arc 2) Chapter 13

Flames and smoke poured into the sky as the Sahara General Hospital burned with a ferocious intensity. After Doctor Jenner and his team had hurriedly packed the corpse of patient zero into a special airtight metal case Captain Darmody and his soldiers rigged the bottom floors with enough incendiary charges to burn the entire block. It had only taken a couple of minutes for the inferno to spread all the way up to the roof and everyone was watching as the once iconic hospital was ravaged by fire, all that is except Claire, Liam and Alex who were trying extremely hard to coordinate with the ZPD to find Max. While Liam and Alex headed to the scene where Max's car had been found Claire had locked herself in the command vehicle, she was in a heated discussion by video conference with the members of the organisation and the overseer who had hurriedly gathered to try and control what had happened.

"Sir all of my agents are already deployed across the city. I have investigative teams searching for Sokolov, agents still combing through raid locations and searching for Max Langdon who we believe was abducted a few hours ago. I've had to send two of my three TUSK teams to secure the CDC lab at the airport as the chemical corps is still at the hospital ensuring that it is completely free from whatever this weapon Sokolov used is."

"Can't you use the ZPD to cover some of these to allow you some freedom of movement?"

"ZPD is stretched as well, between this cordon and the cordon at the park, the museum guarding the orb, airport and other public transport systems as well as increasing the number of officers on patrol to make the public feel safer almost every officer is deployed with many of them into a double shift. We aren't approaching breaking point sir we passed it long ago, we need more feet on the ground sir or this entire thing is going to collapse. We need to open up our resources."

"We have another problem sir"

"What is it Mrs Bane?"

"We've been monitoring social media and it appears that there is a rapidly growing outcry from the public regarding the hospital incident, a number of cell phone videos have appeared across Furbook and on news sites showing the ZPD and ZBI shooting puppets as they tried to leave the hospital. Although the quality is bad enough that you can't see that the victims aren't normal you can clearly see them being shot down by the police. There have been calls for a riot and a large number of citizens look like they're already heading towards the cordon now"

"Sir there is no way we can deal with a riot right now. We need an immediate response"

"Fucking hell. Simmons how many agents do you have at that tower of yours?"

"one hundred and six deployable, I think I need to remind you however that we don't have official jurisdiction to operate on home soil until the war powers act is initiated"

"I realise that. Claire I want you to pull the officers away from the museum and the airport, Simmons you take control of CDC security and take that orb from the museum, store it until we know what it is exactly. Mrs Bane I need you to work your magic, is there any way you can try and splice video together to make it appear as justified force?"

"Maybe, we have footage from inside the hospital showing a number of guards being attacked before it grew out of control, I've got people working on it right now"

"Good, Claire I'll speak with Joey Samuels and get him to allocate more agents to you from the Capital, until then make use of what you have. And if you find Mr Langdon let me know immediately, if he can identify what Sokolov used then maybe we can find a way to stop it. Don't let me keep you Director"

Claire cancelled the call and hurried outside to grab the three radio operators who she had told to leave before making the call, as she told them to send word out to withdraw the officers and have them sent to the scene in case the riot did take place a black car being escorted by an unmarked police vehicle arrived and a sloth bear in police uniform stepped out with several high ranking officers. As soon as the bear saw Claire he stomped over to her and snapped at her,

"Director Schwartzpelz what are you doing ordering my officers around?"

"Commissioner Ursi I am reorganising my officers to deal with the threats"

"Your officers?! I'm Police Commissioner not you, you have no authority to do so without going through me"

Claire's lack of sleep and struggle with everything happening at once bubbled over as she yelled into the bears face as she jabbed him in the chest with her finger.

"No Authority?! This is a terrorist attack and that makes me ground commander! You and your officers will follow my orders without question, I don't have time to deal with your bullshit now get out of my face, one of us actually has a job to do!"

"You can't talk to me like that, your superiors will hear about this"

"Is that supposed to be some sort of threat? Do you want to speak to them now cause I have them on speed-dial"

Ursi hesitated, Claire stepped forward until she was toe to toe with him, he looked down into her eyes that looked like they were screaming bloody murder, she quietly said to him in a cold tone,

"Don't you ever question my command again Mr Ursi"

* * *

In the meeting room beneath the factory the overseer ended the conference call after giving his orders. He sat back and let out a sigh, at his age most mammals would be relaxing as they enjoyed their twilight years, not trying to prevent total chaos. At the other end of the table sat Mrs Bane, a middle aged wolf with pale coloured fur who was wearing a loosely fitted brown suit was looking through a preliminary report of the hospital incident, she had been in the facility trying to coordinate a controlled response to the rapidly building anger across the city when the overseer had called for the meeting. She took a pack of cigarettes out of her jacket pocket and lit one, she took a drag and let out a long cloud of smoke.

"Can I interest you in one?"

The overseer didn't lift his head up but he opened his eyes enough to see her waving a red packet lazily in the air.

"Sure, I'm out of cigars anyway"

She got up and walked over to him as he sat up in his seat. She sat down next to him and offered him the pack. After taking and lighting one Bane plainly stated,

"Claire's right about this one, we need more assets"

"We don't have any, everybody is stretched"

"You know I don't mean from us. I think it's time we dropped the veil, not fully, but enough for us to call in enough mammal power to get a tight grip on this situation. The risk of a riot is no joke Hugo, there are thousands of mammals already discussing taking war to the streets. If it does happen what do you think will happen to the ZPD and ZBI's ability to tackle Sokolov?"

"So what do you suggest? State Troopers?"

"There's another asset we have that we can use, and it wont be too much of a stretch for people to believe it necessary for it's use"

Hugo looked at her for a moment before the light bulb went off in his head.

"Oh no. You had better not be thinking what I think you are"

"The army is a viable response for"

"Have you forgotten that we are a supposed to be a clandestine organisation? Do you have any idea what kind of light that will throw on us?"

"It wouldn't be the first time we've used them, we already have the Chemical Corps in the city"

"We have 1 unit, _only one unit,_ and that's only because Captain Darmody is one of us _._ The moment we open up the doors for the army we can forget it, they'll take the reigns and fuck it up like they always do"

"I don't see any other choice Hugo, they have every resource needed to tackle this threat and the training to deal with it"

"Did you watch the helmet camera? How can you say they have training for that? Nobody's seen anything like this before"

"They dealt with it didn't they? As it stands we don't have any more resources to call upon, what do you suggest we do then?"

"I'll figure something out but we are not calling in the army, end of discussion"

"You can't"

"I said that's the end of discussion, you're dismissed"

* * *

Sirens blared along the suspended highway that passed above some of the more rundown areas of old downtown as the last available officers of the ZPD sped as fast as possible towards the hospital as the situation quickly began to deteriorate as mammals gathered in protests that threatened to become violent. One wolf who was leaning lazily against the wall of a coffee shop that had seen better days took a puff of his cigarette as the cars sped past overhead, the loud rumbling of the old concrete road echoed around the small neighbourhood that was barely hanging on as the city grew and modernised around them, many of the businesses here were small and run by families that had existed here for generations and as it was still early in the morning only a pawfull of mammals were out and about buying fresh groceries or filling up on coffee like the wolf was. The wolf lifted his coffee cup mockingly to a pair of mammals stood across the street from him in front of a dusty old building that was covered in dirt and rust, he enjoyed winding up his colleagues knowing full well that they would love to have a break but would be unable to for a few hours yet. He chugged back the last of his coffee and started heading across the empty street when a dark coloured SUV slowed to a stop next to his colleagues. Suddenly the silence was broken by automatic fire as the doors swung open and four heavily armed mammals sprung from the vehicle shredding his colleagues to pieces in a hail of bullets. He reached to the small of his back under his jacket for his sidearm and dove for the nearest cover, a mailbox. He crouched behind it and fired a couple of shots at the unknown attackers and they fired back at him, bullets ricocheting off the metal shutters and floor next to him. In the heat of the moment he failed to notice that shots that were being fired in his direction had stopped, it wasn't until he felt cold metal against the back of his head that he realised his mistake, a single shot rang out cutting his life short. Sokolov stepped over the wolfs body and followed the other mammals as they smashed in the metal door on the front of the building as another three dashed ahead of him. The sounds of sustained automatic fire made the enclosed hallways and stairwell that lead underground into a deafening hell. The smell of fresh propellant filled his nostrils and it gave him a blood rush as he finished off any mammals that his subordinates had wounded but left as they forced their way through the building, what little resistance that was being put up against them was being swiftly crushed. It only took them a couple of minutes to reach the lowest floor and his destination, a large bulkhead door that looked like it belonged aboard a ship, an old sign still hung above the door warning of explosives from when the building used to be a small fireworks factory. Sokolov nodded to one of the group who pulled his bag open and took out 3 large metal strips in a wedge shape and placed one where each of the hinges would be on the door. They all stood back and the mammal pressed a button on a radio, straight away the three strips exploded sending molten metal slicing through the locks, the group quickly opened the door and charged into the room yelling at someone to get on the ground. Sokolov waited for a moment before heading in so as to ensure that the mammal was complying, but what he saw inside made even his stomach turn. Pierre was being dragged across the floor by Sokolov's men who bound his blood soaked paws behind his back and gagged him as the familiar metallic smell flooded his nostrils. Bound by the clamps to his chair was a very bloody Max, he was slumped backwards and his breathing was slow and laboured. Pierre had given him hell, laid out on the table next to the tools that had been used on him were several pieces of his body placed out for inspection. As two of Sokolov's people worked quickly to stop Max's bleeding Sokolov could see that his left paw was missing two of it's fingers and the right side of his face was so severely cut that he wondered if Max would have the use of his eye any more. One of the pieces that was on the table made Sokolov worry, it was extremely large being several inches across, one of his men found the keys to the clamps as they searched Pierre and he released Max's arms, when they tipped him forward it was clear where it had come from, Max's right shoulder blade was almost entirely exposed down to the bone and the skin looked like it had been cauterized. Two quiet beeps followed by a buzzing sound prompted Sokolov to look at his watch,

"Three minutes, everybody out"

"What about him?"

"Leave him, take Max"

The two mammals tending to Max unfolded a combat stretcher and helped him onto it. He put up no resistance, he barely made any noise at all as they lifted him out of the chair and gently placed him on the fabric, the most that he did was cough as he continued to struggle breathing. As everyone quickly filled out of the room Sokolov took two items from the table, one he put into the deep pocket of his jacket, the other was a blood stained machete. Pierre was a damn size larger than Sokolov, but he was like a leaf in the breeze as Sokolov lifted him up with one arm and pinned him to the wall in a crouched stance. Using the blade of the machete he plucked the gag from his mouth, the bear tried his best not to look scared but Sokolov could see in his eyes that he was terrified, nobody should have known about where they were yet here he was.

"You people think you're smart, but I know what you've been up to with my organisation, it ends today"

"I don't know what your talking about"

Sokolov smacked him across the face with the machetes hilt making blood drip from his mouth as he split his gums,

"Maybe you don't, but Marchenko does. I want you to deliver a message to your boss for me. Can you do that?"

Pierre enthusiastically nodded his head.

"Good"

Sokolov put the point of the blade to Pierre's chest and thrust it into him, there was a solid thunk as it went right to the hilt. Sokolov let go and stood up, Pierre gargled for a moment as blood welled up in his throat but it didn't take but a couple of moments for him to die, his body being kept upright as the blade was embedded into the wall behind him.

* * *

Nick had his paws full as his kits kept a firm grip on them, or as firm a grip as five year olds could, as they slowly followed Judy through the halls of the hospital. It was early morning when they had received a call from the hospital saying that Lyle, Nick's Doctor, had found something that may help his body heal his eyes faster and that they wanted to run some simple tests to see if he was compatible with it. Judy being her ever optimistic self had jumped at the chance before he had even had the opportunity to answer and she had insisted on having the first appointment available. They had arrived on time but had been in the waiting room for an hour as the attack on Sahara General had caused those patients that had managed to escape to be diverted to different sites, including the Zootopia Central Hospital in Downtown. Thankfully the diversion hadn't taken too much time to organise and Lyle had come out to get them and apologised before directing them to the room they would be using. Lyle held the door open until they were all inside before closing it, the room was large and had a single bed in the middle with lots of machines around it, Judy recognised a few of them as standard heart monitors and the such but there were some very high tech ones that she hadn't seen before.

"If you could sit on the bed please Nick"

Judy helped him find the edge of the bed and he pulled himself up onto it,

"So what are these tests Doc?"

"Please call me Lyle, I don't know what they are"

"Come again?"

"I'm not the one running the tests"

There was a knock on the door and Dr Madge Honey Badger walked in carrying a large metal case in one paw and a brown satchel in her other.

"Morning Lyle, sorry I'm late"

"Don't worry, we're behind ourselves, have you got everything you need?"

"Yes I should be fine"

"Alright, I'll do my rounds, call me when your done"

He picked a clipboard up off the edge of the bed and walked out of the room closing the door behind him. Madge put her things down next to the bed and started rummaging through the satchel, Judy picked up Violet who was tugging at her top,

"Madge what are you doing here? I thought you worked in St Mary's?"

"I do usually, and if anyone asks I'm accompanying you to see Lyle"

"What do you mean?"

Madge pulled a key out of the satchel and unlocked the case, inside were several vials of various coloured liquids as well as hypodermic needles and a funny looking pair of glasses that looked like they belonged in a sci-fi movie.

"Okay let me explain. You know I was one of the team that first assessed Langdon when he arrived yeah?"

"Yeah you and Vicky seemed very exited about him"

"I still am. We took blood samples from him and have been doing so on a regular bases with the required health checks that Vicky persuaded him into, over the last year I've been trying to find exactly what it was that gave him his accelerated healing. It took an extremely long time, and a lot of resources, but last month I made a breakthrough, I think I can recreate it"

"You think?"

"Well in theory it works perfectly, and in small experiments its worked, I just haven't had a chance to test it on a willing patient, I haven't exactly been allowed to do this"

"And you thought"

"That maybe you guys would want to give it a go. It wont make your eyes heal straight away but I believe it could reduce the time from three months to roughly three weeks"

Judy was now stood next to Nick, she took his paw in hers and gave it a squeeze,

"What do you think?"

"Three weeks does sound better. Is it safe? Are there any risks?"

"I wont lie, there's always a risk with new medicine, especially something so unusual as this, but I've done everything that I can to minimise the chances of failure"

"What risks are there specifically Madge? I'm not going through with this until I know"

"There's several. Your body could simply reject it in which case it would do nothing, or you could suffer an allergic reaction to it, or some alien thing could happen, I simply don't know. I've run broad tests on it, I'd need to take some blood from you to verify it but so far it seems likely that it will work"

Nicks face took on one of deep thought as he tried to decide. The room was quiet as mulled it over until James pulled at his pants leg, he wanted to be picked up as well but Nick couldn't see his paw to grab hold of, his ears drooped slightly but it was enough for Judy to see the hurt he was experiencing.

"Alright Madge, run your tests"

* * *

The world swam around him and shifted in and out of focus, he could see figures moving around him but couldn't make out who they were because of all the fuzziness, Everything sounded distant and muffled like his ears were popped. He could just about hear someone talking nearby,

"Good work. Yes he was exactly where your intell said he would be... No I still haven't heard from Raya... You know what to do if you find him"

He tried to sit up but his body wouldn't move, it was as if someone else was controlling it. He struggled to lift his arm but only managed to move it a tiny amount, but it was enough for someone to notice, a second voice called out,

"Sir he's waking up"

"How long till he's fully around?"

"About an hour"

"Alright, carry on as planned, don't disturb us unless it's unavoidable"

"Yes sir"

The sound of claws against the floor echoed around for a few moments before he heard the clicking of a door being closed. It took a minute before he could see who had been talking as Sokolov stepped into view next to him, he bent over until their faces were close to each others as he moved his arms across.

"This may feel odd for a moment I'm afraid"

He watched himself being lifted into a seated position, it did indeed feel weird as he had no real feeling in his body at all, it was even more unsettling when he noticed all of the bandages across his arms, chest and legs. When Sokolov let him go he grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to the bed, but just out of arms reach. They sat looking at each other in silence for a moment, Sokolov seemed hesitant for a moment before lifting his paws up behind his head. There were a few loud clicks and he pried the mask from his face with both paws. He was expecting to see a missing jaw but instead Sokolov's face was fully intact, his lower jaw was darker than the rest of his body however and his fur was blackened. He placed the mask on the floor and scratched his jaw for a moment before sitting back into the chair looking more relaxed.

"Hello Max. It's been a while since we've met hasn't it"

Max wanted to say something, he tried desperately, but he could barely move his mouth, all he managed were some illegible sounds. Sokolov could see the struggle in Max's eyes and so he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small cylinder that looked similar to an epi-pen.

"The Doc deserves credit, the anaesthetic really works wonders for us, far better than being treated without any like back home"

He took the cap off the cylinder and jabbed it into Max's thigh just bellow his boxers and injected the green contents into him, Max watched, unable to feel it or do anything about it as his muscles began to pulse around the injection point.

"Recognise it? It's one of our Seeker cocktails, possibly our last one as I don't think either of us will be going home any more, it should help to boost your healing. The anaesthetic will start to wear off quickly and you should start feeling your body coming back to you"

Sokolov took in the view before him, he had never seen Max in this state before, even when they found him after being turned by the Thirin he wasn't in this bad of a state.

"I feel I should apologise Max, I was too focused on my operation to see our enemies making a move, if I had then I could have prevented your...suffering. I give you my word that you are safe here, I have absolutely no intention of harming you"

Sokolov watched as Max started to move his face as control of his body slowly began to return to him.

"Powerful stuff isn't it. When it wears off you're going to be in a lot of pain I'm afraid"

"Where..am..I?"

"In a safe place away from Marchenko, and you wont have to worry about Pierre any more. You'll have to remain here until you are healed, if I release you now you'll probably be killed before you made it back to the ZBI"

"Why.."

He watched as Max struggled to talk for a moment,

"Why help you?"

Max managed to nod a little.

"Believe it or not Max hurting you was never an intention of mine, I want you in as healthy a state as possible. Think about it, why would I keep asking you to join me I wanted you dead? I could have easily killed you any number of times if I wanted, at the morgue where I tested you with the bear, or in the tunnels when you followed me, or at the museum when you spoke to Liam about your confusion. I've been watching you every step of the way Max, to test you and ensure that you are capable for what's coming"

"What's..coming?"

"War Max. _The_ War. This is where it all starts, this is where we intend to end it. Everything I have done has been to prevent a war that has no winners, only losers, the Thirin will soon awaken and when they do we have to be ready"

"How can..attacking us..stop anything"

"Our attacks have put wheels in motion Max, those in charge are beginning to understand what it is we are and the threat our creators pose. They are putting safeguards in place, things we needed. When the Thirin first attacked us we had no warning, they simply appeared and started their merciless slaughter, it eventually leads to our downfall. This way we have a fighting chance, this way we can win if we stop them early enough, before they can get a foothold on our world"

"How can you...know?"

"Let me show you"

Sokolov got out of his chair and walked to the head of Max's bed, he put his right paw into his pocket and pulled out the orb. As it began to glow a deep red he placed his left paw against Max's head. A feeling like static shock riveted through his head for a moment and his vision went white. Suddenly everything around him changed, he was on the floor of a corridor in a building he knew very well, the Citadel Defence Headquarters. The light above him was flickering and the metallic smell of fresh blood filled his nostrils as he kicked the motionless body of female gazelle in security uniform off his legs, her eyes and veins were black and long bone like spikes protruded from her shoulders and hoofs, there were also three bullet holes in her head and a smoking pistol in his paw. Before he could do anything else he felt a paw grab his arm and pull him up slightly, he turned to see Sokolov in military uniform stood over him, an assault rifle hung off his shoulder and a long scar ran down the side of his face,

"We got to move Max, get on your feet"

He scrabbled to his feet, holstered his pistol and picked his own assault rifle off the ground, as he slammed a new magazine in he ran after Sokolov who was running towards the stairwell.

"Where the hells the rest of the team?"

"They're meeting us on the roof"

"Two five better be there"

As they barrelled through the door into the stairwell their radios crackled into life,

"Three seven this is two five where are you?"

"Speak of the devil. We're oscar mike, be there in three minutes"

"Make it two this place has gone to hell"

"on it"

The building shook violently as the sounds of huge nearby explosions poured in followed by a terrifying guttural roar that was far louder than the explosions that made both of them stop in their tracks for a moment, Max saw the realisation in Sokolov's eyes of what that was. They both quickly picked up the pace as they ran up the stairs as fast as possible to towards the roof eight floors above them.

"Move it double time""

"How the hell is that thing still up?!"

"Talk later just run!"

He knew the higher up they ran the narrower the building got and the more sounds from outside bled through the walls, gunfire both close and distant and the sounds of more explosions echoed around. Another roar came from bellow as something came crashing through the wall into the stairwell, Sokolov took one look down the narrow gap between the stairs, he pointed his gun over the side and fired off a long burst of fire. Max went to do the same but Sokolov grabbed him,

"Gimme your grenades"

Max hurriedly untied them from his rig and handed them to Sokolov who tied them together with a zip tie, the roaring was quickly getting closer as he pulled one of the pins and threw the cluster over the side,

"Go!"

They ran up again, the sounds of large claws scrapping against the concrete steps getting closer to them was suddenly shut out by the deafening blast of the grenades, shrapnel pinged around ricocheting and missing them by inches. Max was now in front of Sokolov and he shoulder barged the door to the roof open without slowing down. The sound of the black hawk that was sat on the roof with it's rotors spinning drowned out most of the other sounds but Max could clearly see the fires and tracers flying through the air as intense fighting raged across the Citadel. The door on the side of the helicopter opened and another soldier was waving to them and yelling for them to hurry. Max didn't need any encouragement and the two of them ran across the roof and dove into the side of the chopper, he looked around the almost empty craft in disbelief, there was only the two pilots and this other soldier in there besides him and Sokolov,

"Where's everyone else?"

"Your it"

"What?! We have to get them"

One of the pilots called over her shoulder as the chopper began to lift off the roof,

"No time, this whole place is coming down"

A deafening cracking sound made him turn around as the hut like structure that was the roof access burst into hundreds of pieces as a huge creature ripped through it like it was made of paper. It was huge, taller than a giraffe and built more solidly than a bear it was jet black and had claws and tendrils that made it appear as if straight out of a nightmare.

"Thirin!"

Max, Sokolov and the soldier emptied their rifles at the creature who didn't seem to even realise it was being shot, as the chopper spun around to try and escape quickly the Thirin picked up a huge piece of concrete from the rubble it had just made and threw it at the chopper, the last thing Max saw was it hurtling right at him.

Everything went white again, there was a lot of fuzziness before his senses came back to him. He was back in the room with Sokolov who had one paw on his shoulder and the other in his pocket. Max was breathing rapidly and he could feel tears running down his face but he didn't feel in pain or sad, he didn't know what to feel.

"What...was that?"

"The last day of mammal kind. You were spared what happened next, it isn't pretty. You'll need time to process the vision, I know you'll have questions. I'll be back in a while, for now you need to rest. You might like this as well"

He pulled a metal collar out of his pocket, it had been cut and was now loosely hanging like a chain. He held it out and Max, who was in a sort of stupor, took it from him.

"Pierre cut that from around your neck, it's up to you what you do with it"

Sokolov quietly turned and walked out of the room leaving Max to ponder on what he had just seen.

* * *

AN -Sorry for the delay, i finally managed to get enough time off work to get some writing done, the next chapters in the works and should be up sooner than this one was.


	32. (Arc 2) Chapter 14

" _Thirin!"_

 _Max, Sokolov and the soldier emptied their rifles at the creature who didn't seem to even realise it was being shot, as the chopper spun around to try and escape quickly the huge nightmarish creature picked up a car sized piece of concrete from the rubble it had just made and threw it at the chopper, time seemed to slow down as Max watched the huge block come flying at him knowing full well it was too late for him to move, before it hit everything was enveloped in a blinding white light._

He could hear whispering, quiet at first, but gradually getting louder every time the vision repeated itself. The more times it played the darker and more disturbing the vision seemed to become, Sokolov's scar on his face looked more severe, the sounds of the Thirin became more guttural and twisted causing his skin to crawl. He sat motionless on the bed, the world around him had all but disappeared and the vision encapsulated him in a world of darkness. It wasn't until a familiar and welcoming smell hit his nose that he managed to pull himself out of the cycle and come back to the real world. As the whispering subsided and his surroundings came back into view he realised that there was a cup of coffee being held a few inches from his nose. He shook his head slightly to clear the last of the cobwebs and turned to see Sokolov stood next to him taking a sip from his own cup, he jiggled the cup a little in front of Max who took the hint and took it from his paw. Max looked dubiously at the coffee for a moment,

"It's not poisoned, I wouldn't have gone to the effort of getting you if I wanted you dead"

"That doesn't mean I trust you. After everything you've done your lucky I haven't killed you yet"

"Well the day is young yet Max. But don't think it will be as easy as the last time we met, you don't have a gun and you never won a paw to paw match against me remember, not that I think your in any state to try anything"

"keep tempting me, I may surprise you"

Sokolov laughed heartedly for a few seconds, he sounded a lot different without the mask, his usual gruffness had been reduced and he sounded normal again which put Max slightly aback.

"Why am I here Joseph?"

"because Max, I need your help"

"You need my help? You really think I'm going to help you? I've turned down your previous offers, pulling me out of that...butchers room doesn't mean I've forgotten everything"

"Yes, you've hunted me for eight years, plus one more here, I would say lets go for one more and make it a whole decade before bringing this to a close but I'm afraid we won't make it another year. We're almost out of time"

"No kidding, with your latest attack there's going to be a lot more people looking for you"

"I'm not talking about law enforcement. I'm talking about the Thirin, they'll be here soon"

Max saw that the jovialness he had had a few moments ago had now gone and had been replaced with a very serious look. Max decided to stop playing around for a minute.

"Alright, I'm listening"

"Coming to this city, this timeline, it was no accident Max. Most of our records were destroyed during the first year of fighting with the Thirin and so it has taken us an extremely long time to locate where their origin point was. This is it, this city, this is ground zero, and we've almost reached Event point"

"When is it?"

"Soon. A week, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, but by the end of the month we'll be neck deep in Thirin and puppets. Our only option is to stop the initial force from gaining a foothold. If we cane do that then we have a real chance at stopping this war from taking place"

"Bullshit, they didn't start in one place and spread about, they appeared worldwide at the same time"

"No they didn't. They opened a breach from wherever they come from and they spread out from there, we found an original map that showed their advancement buried deep in the Citadels archives, locked away from most peoples eyes"

"Why lock it up?"

"Because the Supreme Council believes it would undermine their authority, not only does it show the dates that the Thirin expanded out of the city it also shows the governments response. They butchered millions of lives to try and save themselves. Some of those who made the decision are the ancestors of the council members from our time. It wouldn't look good for them"

"That sounds crazy, I don't believe it"

"Is it that crazy? Considering everything we've seen and done?"

"So what, you find some document and instantly think we need to go back in time and attack people to stop the Thirin? I can't believe I even just said that"

"I give you my word it's true"

"Your word isn't worth shit you fucking maniac"

"It had to be done"

"Blowing up hundreds of people and releasing a chemical weapon _had to be done_?!"

Max's blood boiled over, he threw his coffee cup at Sokolov and wiped the covers off the old hospital bed. He wasn't as fast as he needed though, the muscles that Pierre had cut made him stumble and by the time he had regained his footing he lost it again as Sokolov delivered a swift and powerful punch to his stomach causing him to go week at the knees. He didn't fall to the floor however, Sokolov put his forearm against Max's throat and forced him back against the bed pinning him in place,

"You need to listen! This war will be decided here before it even begins, everything I've done has been for the betterment of mammal kind, so a few hundred people died, if it means saving billions then I have no remorse!"

He forced Max back violently sending him and the bed who's wheel had unlocked during the short conflict sliding back across the room, Max fell down against it coughing violently as he held his throat gasping for breath. Sokolov pulled the top of his jacket sharply and ran his paws through the fur on his head, in a much calmer voice he said,

"War is around the corner Max, you need to chose which side your on, those of us trying to prevent it, or the masses that will face the slaughter"

He picked up his empty cup and left the room, the door slammed shut behind him and a loud clunking noise signalled that he wasn't getting out any time soon.

* * *

In Zootopia Central Hospital Nick was laying back on the bed while Judy did her best to keep James and Violet behaved, the two were already growing bored even though they had only been in the room for twenty minutes. As she played games with them and kept them occupied Madge was running through her tests, she had taken some of Nick's blood and was mixing it with various reagents from her metal case. As she conducted each test she scribbled away in a notebook that was on the table next to the various viles, some of which held extremely bright colours that could easily have put Nick off if he was able to see them. Madge was one of the types of mammals that would work quietly and once she had finished telling him what she would be doing to him she hadn't said a word, which after nearly twenty minutes was making him worry.

"So Doc, hows it looking?"

"Well"

"Well?"

"I've got to say I wasn't expecting a result like this"

"Should I be worried?"

"No, the exact opposite, I was anticipating at least one failure out of the batch but it appears that you're good to go, there's not a single negative"

A big smile spread across his face,

"You hear that carrots? There's nothing bad about me"

"That's not what she said, I can think of a few things, _slick~_ "

He blushed beneath his fur and he shifted slightly on the bed,

"Really? In front of the kits?"

Judy and Madge chuckled at him,

"Now, I have to explain how this procedure will work, it's going to take some time to go over it so get comfortable"

In another part of the hospital a security officer doing his patrol past another officer , a yak, sat next to a private room. The officer guarding the room looked bored out of his skull, he had almost worked his way through a travel crossword book and was not looking forward to the three hours he had left on his shift, he had been listening to the police dispatchers as they send officers to what was left of the General Hospital as protestors gathered around the police cordon, that was until he had been verbally battered by a nurse for _making the place too noisy,_ the area was quiet with few patients being treated here and his radio was echoing around, so he gave in and turned it down after realising she wasn't going to give up. He finished the puzzle he was on and put the book away inside his vest and let out a fed up sigh, he contemplated playing on his cellphone when the door to the wing opened and a tiger walked in in casual clothing and a baseball cap pulled down over his face, he was walking with his paws in his pockets and a gift wrapped box under one arm. It wasn't until the tiger was within a few feet of him that the officer recognised who it was. He shot to his feet and went for his gun but it was too late. In one movement the tiger dropped the box, pulled a knife out of his pocket and charged the officer jamming the blade between his ribs and into his heart, the officer was forced back against the wall and was lifted off his feet by the strength of the tiger. The officer couldn't call out for help or grab his gun, all he could do was make a muffled throaty sound, as the struggling from the officer disappeared as he quickly bleed out internally the tiger lowered him back down into his seat and pulled out the knife, he let the blood from the knife drip onto the floor as blood poured from the wound staining the light brown uniform. He picked the box up and let himself into the room the officer had been guarding, lying on the bed in front of him was Darell Scratch, he was hooked up to various machines that quietly beeped as he slept. The tiger put the box on the edge of the bed and ripped the packaging off it, he pulled the lid off and dropped it to the floor, as the lid clattered Darell's eyes began to slowly open, his eyes shot open however when the tiger grabbed him by the throat and shoved a rag into his mouth. Darell's shouts of protest came out as nothing more than a muffled whimper, he tried to fight back against the tiger but he was easily overpowered, his arms were forced behind his head and there were some rapid clicks before the tiger stepped back. He tried to pull his arms back down but he couldn't, he turned his head to see that he had been paw cuffed to the metal headboard and was unable to move, when he snapped his head back to his attacker he froze and his blood ran cold as he got his first good look at him, staring at him with a deranged look on his face was Carlos Raya.

"Darell Darell Darell, I've been looking for you. We left you before I was finished, I can't let people think i'm half arsed now can I? What would happen to my rep if I did that, it would be unthinkable"

Darell wrenched his paws against the cuffs, trying to slip them through, but Raya had made sure they were tight. He tried desperately to call for help but the rag was large and he couldn't dislodge it.

"Don't worry I'll take the gag out in a minute, after all I want to hear you scream as I finish this. The mammal who betrayed us finally getting what's coming to him"

Darell's heart was racing as he watched Raya pull a large extremely sharp looking knife from the box.

The double doors to the ward swung open as a security bear walked down the corridor sipping a cup of coffee, he was feeling lucky that he was patrolling the private ward as this floor had a vending machine on it. As he walked through the ward he saw the officer sat on the chair next to Darell's room, something about the officer made the bear stop in his tracks, he wasn't moving at all, it took him a few seconds before he saw the blood running down the yak's uniform. The bear dropped his coffee and grabbed his radio,

"Officer down ward eight room twelve"

As he let go of the transmission button there was a painful scream from the room, he drew his pistol and barged through the door. The bear entered just as Raya dragged the knife that was in Darell's stomach down to the hilt the full length of his body to the base of his neck. Blood poured from Darell's body as Raya laughed to himself, his laughter was drowned out as the guard opened fire on him. As each bullet dug through Raya's coat and into his back the guard stepped back into the hallway, it didn't matter how many bullets he fired Raya showed no sign that he even felt the bullets hitting him. The guards slide locked back as he fired the last of his bullets, he released the magazine and fumbled for another one in panic as Raya pulled the knife out of Darell's corpse and charged at him. He knocked the guard off his feat and he hit the ground hard with Raya sitting on his chest, the guard tried desperately tried to force him off as Raya began stabbing him in a frenzied attack. Blood sprayed up the wall with each stab, even when the guard stopped moving Raya continued to stab him as he cackled to himself until the knife got stuck in one of the bears ribs, he tried a couple of times to dislodge it but gave up when it refused to move. Spotting the guards gun he picked it up, took the spare magazines from the bears pouch and headed to the wards doors.

Back in the examination room Nick and Judy were sat with their Kits on their laps, Madge had gone through what the treatment would entail and how long it would take, it sounded very promising and Nick was looking forward to being able to see again as soon as possible. Madge was on the phone with Lyle trying to arrange for him to clear the room for the entire day when Judy's ears shot straight up. Nick couldn't see this but he knew when Judy was on edge, she had been leaning against him and had gone stock still,

"Something wrong?"

"Did you hear that?"

"What?"

"That crack"

"I didn't hear"

He caught himself mid sentence as he heard a crack and pop, even Madge stop talking for a moment as she spun around in her chair to face them. As they looked at each other there was a bang followed by three bangs in quick succession.

"That's gunfire"

Judy hopped down off the seat, she ran over to the door and hopped up onto the handle and looked behind the pull down cover into the corridor. Nick called out to her

"Judy what are you doing?"

"Hold on"

Two security officers ran past the room and around a corner, there was another series of bangs that sounded even closer again, moments later Judy saw a figure holding a pistol in one paw and a stun gun in another. She duct down as he looked in her direction before something caught his attention drawing him away from her. Judy jumped down from the door and pulled out her cellphone,

"What did you see?"

"It's Raya"

"Raya?!"

An alarm began to sound as word quickly spread as to what was going on.

Her call connected, she didn't give the person on the other end any time to say anything as she blurted out,

"This is Agent Wildehopps there's an active shooter Central Hospital Downtown, suspect Carlos Raya, get everything down here now"

She tossed her phone to Madge who looked panicked,

"Wha What do you want me to do?"

"Just stay on the line, answer any questions they have"

James and Violet were starting to cry as more shots and shouting rang out nearby, Nick held them close to him and Judy went and gave them a brief hug. Nick knew she was up to something when she pulled away after a few seconds,

"Carrots what are you doing?"

"I can't sit by and wait, they need help"

"We need your help, don't go out there please"

There was a panicked scream in the hallway, a gunshot rang out and the scream stopped. Judy gave him a quick kiss and stepped back before he could grab her,

"I'm sorry Nick"

She pulled out her gun that she always carried in the small of her back and quickly dashed out of the room so that Raya couldn't see where she had come from if he did spot her. She heard the door lock click behind her and Madge watched through the crack in the blinds as Judy ran off down the corridor towards the gunfire. As she ran through the corridor she saw four mammals, three staff and a patient dead on the floor and a a nurse trying to tend to a security officer who had attempted to stop Raya. There were screams coming from everywhere as mammals tried to escape, the screams were intermittently interrupted by a gunshot or two. As Judy reached a junction in the corridor she pressed herself against the wall, she could hear footsteps but they were slow. She spun around the corner with her gun raised expecting to see Raya, instead she came face to face with a sheep, it's wool was stained red with blood as it held a hoof against it's side, his eyes were filled with terror as Judy's gun was pointing at his face.

"Plea please don't kill me I have a daughter"

Another shot rang out and blood sprayed over Judy's cloths and face as the sheep's head burst like a melon. Stood twenty feet away with a manic grin on his face was Raya,

"Nearly missed one"

Judy didn't give him a chance and started emptying her gun at him, she saw puffs of material flying off his coat as her rounds ripped into him but he kept standing, she kept firing till the slide locked back. She dropped the empty magazine out and started putting her only other mag in when he raised his gun quickly and pulled the trigger, she was expecting to hear a bang but instead there was just a click.

"Huh, jammed piece of shit, oh well"

He tossed the guards gun to the ground and dropped his heavy coat off in one smooth motion, it hit the ground fast and with a loud thud, It was then that Judy could see the armoured vest he was wearing, but it was what was stuck to his belt that made her dash away quickly. Raya pulled a large pistol from a holster and fired a burst of automatic fire in her direction, Judy's fast reflexes were the only thing that saved her as the shots landed where she had just been a fraction of a second before. As she ran through the corridor looking for a way to fight back as bullets flew around her Raya called out to her with a deranged crackly voice,

"You can run little rabbit but you can't hide. When I catch you I'm going to do things to you your husband only dreams he could do, we're gonna have some fun you and I"

She ducked behind a metal cart that was full of patients medicine and fired back at him, he fired several bursts back at her piercing the cart and missing her by millimetres. When he stopped to reload she popped out and fired twice at him hitting him in his vest twice. He slapped his chest with his paw and laughed,

"You gotta aim better than that love"

He fired another burst at her as she dove into a room who's door was open, one of the bullets managing to catch her in the ear making her yell in pain. In her panic she had ended up in a patients room with no way out except for where she had entered. In desperation she dove under the bed and crawled out the other side using the bedside cabinet as the only cover in the room, she kept her pistol aimed at the door and as soon as she saw Raya's figure in the door frame she fired everything she had at him. There was a clattering as he dropped his gun and grabbed his arm,

"Aargh you fucking bitch! You're gonna regret that"

He stepped over the gun and kicked the bed sending it sliding across the floor knocking the cabinet over, Judy quickly scrambled under the bed before it hit her but she wasn't quick enough, Raya grabbed her by the ears as she emerged from under it and he held her up at arms length as she flailed around trying to kick him.

"Get off me you bastard!"

"I don't think so, look what you did"

She had caught him in the arm and there was a large chunk of flesh missing, but it didn't seem to slow him down at all, instead he put the arm behind his back and pulled out another long knife.

"You know, Sokolov wanted to keep you and your husband out of this for some reason, but fuck him, I want to have some fun!"

He threw her against the wall extremely hard, the force knocked the wind out of her and she heard something snap, before she could recover her breath she felt an immense pain in her stomach as Raya plunged the knife into her down to the hilt and into the floor beneath her pinning her in place. She gasped for air, the pain was so shocking that she wasn't able to scream, she could only watch in horror as Raya casually walked over and picked up his gun. As he walked towards her with a filthy grin Nicks voice rang through her head saying not to go outside and that she wished she had listened to him.

"Well it was fun, but I'm bored now. Night night little rabbit"

She closed her eyes and a burst of fire rang out, she felt the air move as the bullets snapped past her head but nothing hit her as the sounds of glass shattering and Raya shouting,

"Get off me you fuck!"

She opened her eyes just in time to see Raya get dragged backwards through the window overlooking the corridor, he fired several bursts of his pistol in random directions as he tried to break free from his attacker, finally managing to wrench himself free he leapt backwards and aimed his gun at someone out of sight. He fired again but it didn't stop the huge figure from charging at him, she watched as a bull backhanded the pistol out of Raya's paw and gut punch the tiger so hard that he doubled over in pain, the bull didn't stop there, he grabbed Raya and threw him across the corridor with ease slamming him into the wall cracking the tiles. The bull stood over Raya and spoke with a calm deep voice that she hadn't heard before,

"You've overstepped your boundaries Raya, you should have followed your orders"

Raya gasped for breath,

"Why are you following him?"

"He set us free, you ow him your allegiance"

"I must be the only one with his eyes open, we're puppets to him"

"We're soldiers, soldiers should be loyal"

"I'm loyal only to me"

Raya sprung to his feet and dove at the bull plunging a knife that he had hidden in his belt into the bulls side. Raya grinned as dark blood ran from his split lip, but when he looked up his grin quickly disappeared. The bull hadn't even flinched at the knife and he was now looking at Raya with wide rage filled eyes. He grabbed Raya's wrist with one hoof and clenched it, forcing Raya to let go of the knife and cry in pain as he was lifted off the ground by his arm that was bending in the wrong direction. With his free hoof the bull grabbed the tigers chest and slammed him down onto the window frame, there was a loud cracking noise as Raya doubled over backwards hanging half in and half out of the room, a large piece of glass from the broken window poking through his chest. As he gasped for breath the bull walked into the room and pulled the knife out of his side with a grunt, the blade was long and dripping with a black liquid. He grabbed a hoof full of the fur on Raya's head and lifted it up enough for him to see eye to eye as the bull looked down on him before he plunged the knife through Raya's throat and out the back of his neck, Raya gargled for a moment before going limp, his head hitting the wall as the bull let him go. Judy's vision was starting to go in and out as the bull walked over to her and knelt down next to her. He put his hoof on the knife but stopped before he pulled it out. It was only now with him being this close that she recognised him from police reports as the former Commander White, his eyes were jet black just like Raya's had been and it made her chest hurt as her heart raced even faster. He brought his hoof back and rested it on his lap,

"The knife is keeping pressure on your wound, if I pull it out you will bleed to death within minutes"

Judy was unable to speak, her body was going into shock from the pain as tears ran down her face.

"You have a family. They'll want to see you again, like mine do."

He took a small syringe from a pouch in his vest and held her arm, she tried to pull back but his grip was vice like and she felt a small prick as he injected the honey coloured liquid into her arm. It took only a moment for her head to begin to swim,

"This will ease the pain, Sokolov is right to want to keep you alive, You and Nick will..."

She didn't get to hear the last of what he was saying as the injection took full affect and she blacked out.


	33. (Arc 2) Chapter 15

The sounds of sirens and shouting filled the air as thousands of protestors surrounded the hastily put together barricades that the ZPD had set up. Police cars and ballistic walls were blocking off the entrances to the hospital grounds as roughly thirty officers in riot gear struggled against a growing mob of extremely angry mammals chanting for justice for the victims of the hospital attack. Social media had exploded with videos of the TUSK and SWAT teams firing on, as far as the general public was concerned, unarmed civilians who were trying to escape the hospital. Claire stood on the narrow maintenance ladder of the command vehicle that lead to the antennae on top and stared out at the huge crowd that went as far as she could see. Being the ground commander she had called for every available officer and agent to back up the officers a the hospital but the crowd was so determined and fierce that they couldn't get through to them.

"Director Schwartzpelz"

Claire looked over to where the voice was coming from and saw Captain Darmody walking over to her with a concerned look on his face, Darmody's unit had taken longer to secure everything than they had anticipated and before they could leave they found themselves boxed in by the protestors with the rest of the officers. Claire climbed down a couple of steps and jumped the rest landing a few feet in front of Darmody.

"What can I do for you Captain?"

"We need to get to the airport, Doctor Jenner needs to examine patient zero asap if we're to have any chance of fighting this thing"

"I understand that Captain, but right now we're stuck here until reinforcements arrive"

"How long is that going to take?"

"I don't know, everyone who's available is being geared up as we speak, as soon as their ready we'll try and disperse the crowd, or at least make a gap for you to get through"

There was a loud crashing noise and they both turned to see a group of protestors rocking a patrol car onto it's roof and setting it on fire, several officers had to duck for cover as rocks were thrown at them by some of the more hard-line protestors that looked like they had come prepared for a fight.

"I don't mean to pile more on your plate Director, but if they force your people back we're authorised to use lethal force to defend the convoy"

"You can't do that"

"I can and I will"

"I'm ground commander here not you, you follow my"

"I don't fall under your command Director, my orders come directly from Overseer Hugo not form you. And my orders are to find out how to prevent an outbreak like the one we saw here is the entire reason we're here, nobody can be allowed to stop that"

She looked behind him and saw half of the soldiers were stood next to their vehicles, their weapons shouldered and ready to go if anyone broke through.

"If that's they way you want to play it Captain then you and your people get back in your trucks, I don't want nay itchy trigger fingers starting more bloodshed unless it's absolutely necessary"

"Deal"

He put his thumb and finger in his mouth and made a sharp whistle, once his people were looking at him he waved his finger above his head in a circular motion and his soldiers started getting back in their trucks.

"Clear this for me Director and you'll make the overseer happy"

"Oh fuck him, I'm more concerned about stopping senseless killing"

Claire's phone rang and when she pulled it out she saw it was an unknown number,

"Hello?"

"Director Schwartzpelz this is Mrs Bane"

"I'm kind of busy Mrs Bane can this wait?"

"No it can't, listen closely. We've dug deeper into those social media accounts that organised the riot, they were all made in the last 24 hours and they all originate from the same IP address"

"Have you got an ID?"

"Not yet, the IP address is an internet cafe in downtown, we're scouring CCTV right now but our intelligence suggests that this riot is a precursor to another attack"

"Christ it never ends"

"You need to disperse that crowd"

"How exactly are we supposed to do that? Most of our officers are on the other side, all we've got are..."

Claire spotted the two TUSK trucks that had finally made it to the hospital after the attack and an idea popped into her head.

"Director?"

"Sorry I'm gonna have to call you back"

She pocketed her phone and yelled across the parking lot to a rhino stood with the SWAT officers,

"Rhinowitz! Come here!"

"Yes Ma'am"

The huge rhino ran over to her and stopped a few feet short of her, he towered over her and crouched down so he was eye level with her.

"Intell thinks there's another attack coming, we need to clear the crowd"

"How we supposed to do that?"

"You're trucks loaded right?"

"Yeah"

"Use the stun grenades and mace to get them moving then we'll make a rolling wall with the trucks and force them back to the main streets"

"Are you sure that's wise ma'am?"

"You got a better idea?

"unfortunately no" He grabbed his radio can called into it "Cooper, Noel, you two break off and grab whatever crowd control gear you can get from the truck, grenades, mace, anything like that and dish it out, we need to clear this crowd asap"

A female voice called back acknowledging the order and two figures left the group of officers guarding the gate and ran across the parking lot to one of the SWAT trucks.

"Give us ten minutes to gear up Ma'am then we'll be ready"

"Good, once we've started we'll need to"

She was drowned out as without warning the sound of heavy automatic gunfire filled the air accompanied by the sounds of thousands of mammals screaming in fear and pain. Claire and and Rhinowitz ran towards the gate where the officers and agents were trying to find who was shooting as the crowd surged as everyone tried to run for whatever exit or cover they could find, it was immediately obvious that there were hundreds of mammals being crushed as everyone had been standing almost shoulder to shoulder only moments ago. The radio's were going wild with nobody sure who the enemy was,

" _Anybody got eye's on the shooter?"_

" _Negative"_

" _There's got to be more than one"_

" _I can't see who's a target"_

" _Christ it's a massacre"_

" _Keep your heads down"_

" _I see one! Muzzle flash second floor Soiree department store"_

As gunfire continued to rain down on the crowd the few officers who were in a position to see the open window fired back at the unknown attacker, the crescendo was deafening and it was impossible to hear the radios. With everyone panicking and the cops focusing on the attacker that they could see a large section of the crowd closest to the hospital forced their way past the makeshift barricades into the parking lot as they looked for cover. Claire climbed up onto the roof of one of the patrol cars and looked into the crowd, she quickly ducked down as a burst of bullets cracked over her head missing her by inches.

"Rhinowitz! There's one in the crowd, right hand side 100 meters, brown bear grey coat"

"Got it!"

As four officers forced their way into the staff entrance of the department store in hunt of the first shooter Rhinowitz grabbed a ballistic shield built for his size and he and two others pushed down the street. Claire took cover with other officers behind a barricade and, being as careful as possible not to hit any of the civilians trying to escape, fired at the second shooter. With the onslaught of bullets being fired at it the bear ducked into an entranceway made of stone and started firing between the cops behind the barricade and Rhinowitz's team. More shots rang out from the second floor shooter and the cop next to Claire sunk to the floor like a lead weight as his head popped, blood sprayed over her face and she ducked low to the ground as bullets tore through the car like it was made of paper. Glass showered over her and she instinctively held her arm over her head shielding her eyes, at least three other cops had been hit and were either dead or injured next to her. As more bullets rang out she feared the worst until she felt someone grab her by the legs and drag her along the ground, she opened her eyes in shock to see Darmody pull her close enough for him to grab her by the arm and drag her with him, as the soldiers gave them cover fire, behind one of the TUSK trucks who's body was more resistant to the gunfire.

"Are you a magnet for this kind of shit or what?"

"Ah shut it. I lost my gun gimme your sidearm"

He turned his hip and let her unholster it as he fired a few shots with his rifle towards the window of the department store,

"This is one hell of a mess, who are these guys?"

"Hell if I know"

The soldiers, Darmody and Claire fired at the window as the other officers kept the bear pinned down as Rhinowitz closed in on him. There was a bright flash and a sharp loud bang from the department store and a hail of gunfire rang out from inside.

"Shooter down, store clear"

A SWAT officer stuck their head out of the window and began firing towards the bear as Rhinowitz's team moved out into the street and pummelled the entranceway with bullets, there was a brief exchange of fire with the bears bullets bouncing off the heavy ballistic shield before Rhinowitz charged forward and slammed into the bear with an impressive amount of force and pinning him against the wall as one of the officers emptied a can of mace into his face. The bear yelled in pain and he was thrown to the floor with Rhinowitz kneeling on his back as he was cuffed.

" _One in custody. All clear"_

As everyone got a second to catch their breaths the size of what just happened began to sink in. The street was littered with the dead and injured, blood and bullet casings lay everywhere, the sounds of the injured made Claire shudder involuntarily as it reminded her of some of the places she had worked before joining the ZBI.

" _Control this is director Schwartzpelz, we need as many ambulances you can get down here now, we've got a huge number of casualties, notify all local hospitals to be ready for mass casualty event"_

" _Control copies"_

" _two five all units be advised, we've located another assault rifle there's a third attacker"_

"Shit. Darmody get your guys out of here I got a bad feeling about this"

"Understood. Everyone mount up we're leaving"

Shouting in the distance from the direction of the convoy caught their attention as two soldiers were yelling at a yak at gunpoint with it's hoofs in the air, he looked like he could pass as a student except the backpack he was wearing looked far too heavy duty for that. The light bulb went off in Claire's head,

"Darmody tell them to take him out"

He grabbed his radio but it was too late. There was a bright flash and a deafening blast as the bomb in his backpack detonated.

* * *

Nick struggled to contain his worry, within a few minutes of Raya's attack ending Judy had been found unconscious and pinned to the floor by Raya's knife that had been plunged through her stomach. Being the most badly injured out of all of the mammals that had survived the attack she was rushed into surgery as what little police that were available arrived and put the hospital in lock-down to try to restore some semblance of order as mammals were unsure as to whether it was safe in the hospital or not. Sitting close to the surgery theatre he clasped his paws together to stop them shaking as he felt a smaller paw against his arm as his mother sat down next to him and squeezed his arm in reassurance.

"Hey Nicky, we came down as soon as I heard"

"Thanks mom..We?"

"Hi Nick"

"Stu? Bonnie? How are you here so fast?"

"Marian called us yesterday, asked if we send a gift box of your favourite produce down after your eye injury to cheer you up, we thought we'd bring it down ourselves and see everyone"

Nick could tell by the wavering in his voice that Stu was struggling to keep himself together just like he was, Bonnie who had been silent quietly asked,

"How is she?"

"I don't know, they rushed her straight in an hour ago"

"Is it?"

"It's bad, she was unconscious when they found her and she lost a lot of blood when they moved her to theatre, I haven't heard anything yet"

He felt the bench move slightly as Stu and Bonnie sat down the other side of him and he felt Bonnie's paw clasp over his,

"My girls a strong one, always has been, she'll make it"

"Where's James and Violet?"

"Marigolds looking after them"

"Thanks, that didn't take long"

"The news has spread like wildfire, I'm sure everyone in the family knows by now. Don't be surprised if you get swarmed with rabbits later today"

Nick chuckled a little at the thought of an army of the Hopps family descending on the hospital, his laughter, although brief, helped to give everyone some semblance of hope a the bleak situation.

There was a squeaking noise from the hinge of the theatre door as it opened and someone came out, Nick sat up straight as he heard footsteps heading their way and stop just in front of them.

"Mr Wildehopps?"

"That's me"

"I'm Doctor Hunter, I'm part of the analysis team for the surgical ward, your wife is still under operation but the surgeon has asked me to speak with you. Are the rest of you family?"

"Yes we're her parents"

"Okay good, let's head to my office to discuss this"

Luckily Hunters office wasn't far and within a couple of minutes they were all sat down in his office, the hustle and bustle of the hospital all but silenced by the thick office walls and window looking into the corridor.

"Right, your wife's surgery is complicated and will take several more hours to complete but we thought it best to talk to you about what's been found"

"What do you mean what's been found?"

"Your wife's injuries are substantial and for a mammal her size even more dangerous than usual given the size of the blade. The surgical team is doing everything that they can but we believe that, given the severity of the injury, your wife has a 30% chance of survival"

"What?! How can you say that?!"

"Please Mr Wildehopps let me explain. The blade has severed her intestines, sliced her liver and cut part of her spine. There are three surgeons working on her as we speak and they will do everything they can but it is a very delicate situation, there is an extremely high chance of infection and complications that arise from only one of these injuries normally, all three only compound the situation further. You have my word that we won't give up on her and that we will do everything possible, but you need be prepared for the worst"

Nick was shocked into silence,, he tried to say something, anything to the doctor but he couldn't get anything to come out, the thought of losing Judy after everything that they had been through was too much for him. Bonnie grabbed Nicks paw and squeezed it tightly,

"Thank you for letting us know Doctor"

"I'm sorry to have had to tell you like this, but there's never an easy way to go about it"

"We understand"

"I'll leave you have to room for a bit to get your head around this. I'll check back in with the surgeons and try to get regular updates for"

Just then there was a knock on the door and female that sounded middle aged by her urgent voice burst in,

"Doctor Hunter you're needed in ER right now"

"What's it about?"

"There's been another bombing"

* * *

The observation slot in the large metal door slide sideways as one of Sokolov's men peered into the room where Max was being held, the light was a little dull but the Great Dane could see a figure lying in the bed at the other end of the room asleep. He closed the slot and unlocked the door with one of the many keys he had and pushed it open with his free paw, the other holding a box with food and drink in it for Max. The door opened inwards and was only halfway open when it violently swung back hitting the guard in the face stunning him for a moment, he dropped the box and grabbed his nose as it flared with pain, before he could react he was pulled into the room and thrown over Max's shoulder onto the floor with a dull thud, Max waisted no time and grabbed the guard in a tight headlock stopping him for calling for help and squeezed tightly as he yanked it sharply, a sickening crunch followed and the guard stopped moving as Max snapped his neck. He quickly checked to see that nobody was aware of what happened, satisfied he pulled the guard and the box into the room before closing the door. He stripped the guard down and put on his clothes, they were a bit too big for him but he did the best he could to fold the uniform to make it appear normal at a glance. The guard had been wearing a bullet proof vest and was carrying a pistol, he checked it over and made sure it was loaded, he had two spare mags to accompany it but that wouldn't last long if he ended up in a firefight.

"Slow and steady eh?"

A twang of pain from his leg made him worry a bit, he hopped he could get through this without having to run as he didn't know if his leg would be up for it with the injuries he had. He put the pain to the back of his mind and pulled the guards cap down to try and hide his face before heading out of the room. He found himself in a narrow corridor of plain concrete walls with pipes hanging from the ceiling, it was much colder here than in the room and he could see small trickles of water running down the wall,

"Christ where am I?"

He cautiously made his way down the corridor keeping as alert as possible while keeping a paw on the holster, the corridor was long and it took him almost a minute before he came to a three way junction. He had no idea which way to go until he heard the sound of distant voices and mechanical noise coming from one of the routes, if there were mammals around then there could probably be an exit as well, but that would also increase the likelihood of being caught if it was busy. With few options available he headed in the direction of the sound, as he got closer the corridor opened up into a huge circular hall that dropped out bellow the catwalk that he stepped out onto. The catwalk ran around the edge of the huge hall to a large metal door on the other end of hall, and luckily for him he was the only one on the catwalk. He peered over the edge and could see what was making all the noise, there were two huge machines almost fifty feet bellow him pumping arms moving at immense speeds that made an almost constant hammering noise that drowned out almost all other noise, but not completely. Working next to the machines were a small army of mammals with welding and cutting tools who looked like they were modifying three large articulated box trucks. He watched as the crew around one of them pulled a rolling rail out of the back of one of them, a forklift truck drove over with a metal crate larger than a rhino and suspended it above the rail as the crew attached it. As he watched he spotted a group of guards moving amongst the workers, one of them stood out from the rest,

"Sokolov. What the hell are you up to?"

He moved around the catwalk to get a better view of him and watched intently as Sokolov appeared to be having a heated discussion with one of the workers, he failed to hear the door open behind him until the guard was already walking through. For a moment Max hoped that the guard would continue on past him while he was looking over the edge, but the guard wasn't fooled. The guard went for his pistol, Max pushed back heard against the railings and used his back as a battering ram forcing the guard against the wall, he grabbed the guards wrist before he could draw the pistol and elbowed him in the face with his other arm. He spun around to face the guard but ended up with a fist in the gut for hiss troubles making him lose his grip on the guards wrist. He pulled the pistol out and Max backhanded it away from his face as it was raised at him, in the same movement he put his arm around the back of the guards head and used it as leverage as he stomped down on the guards shin shattering it instantly. The guard yelled for a moment but was abruptly cut off as Max punched him in the throat. The guard dropped to his knees, Max took a step back believing that the guard was done but was surprised when he suddenly lunged forward with his shoulder in Max's stomach sending them both backwards into the catwalk railing. Max elbowed the guard hard in the spine but it didn't flinch, he hit it again and again as it began clenching him tightly as it tried to squeeze the air out of him. As he struggled against the guard he spotted something on his belt, he reached over the guards back and popped open the catch on the sheath and pulled out the long knife, holding it in both paws he slammed the blade into the middle of its spine, it drove down to the hilt and almost instantly the guard let go of him, as Max pulled the knife out to stab the guard again it snapped it's arms upwards as it stood up suddenly and grabbed Max by the throat as it snarled. It forced Max against the railing and he was in danger of going over the edge as the railing started to buckle, he grabbed hold of the railing and hooked one of his legs around one of the struts as he stabbed the guard over and over in the chest, it's eyes were black as the night and it was bleeding dark ooze like the hospital victims. The guards grip was tight as he forced Max's head back. Max was beginning to black out as his oxygen began to run out. In desperation he let go of the rail and grabbed the guards head as he jammed the knife upwards, unable to see. The pressure around his throat released instantly and he slummed to the floor against the railings chocking as he tried to get his breath back, there was a loud clang and he opened his eyes to see the guard fall to his knees with the knife stuck hilt deep under his jaw, he fell face first into the railing which gave a splintering sound as it gave way, Max grabbed the strut he was leaning against and grabbed for the guard but it was too late, it was already over the edge. Max watched unable to stop it was the guards body fell into the work area bellow, it landed just on a worker just a few feet in front of Sokolov. There was a moment of silence from everyone until they turned their heads up towards him, he could see Sokolov mouth something before all of the guards ran for one of the doors, Sokolov just stared at Max smiling.

Max swore to himself as he scrambled to his feet and dashed through the door next to him, the corridor went two ways, one up and the other down. With only a second to decide he headed up to put as much distance between himself and the guards as possible. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him up the stairs into another concrete corridor, he could hear footsteps and shouting approaching as he barrelled down the corridor with his pistol in paw. As he ran he could hear voices ahead of him as well and two guards ran through a doorway, Max was ready for them and he opened fire as he ran, the first shots tore into the guards chest and neck killing him and making the second guard trip as his colleagues body fell to the ground suddenly in front on him, Max gave him no opportunity and shot him point blank in the head as he passed by. As he passed through the door he had to duck behind a large concrete column as a burst of gunfire peppered the air around him as a three guards fired at him with assault rifles. Spotting a metal door that was slightly ajar twenty feet away he put a fresh magazine in the pistol and fired it in the direction of the guards who ducked to avoid it as he ran to the door and shoulder barged it open. He spun around and slammed it closed as bullets ricocheted off its thick metal structure and slid the bolt across. It was only then that he took a moment to take in his surroundings, he was outside in the freezing cold on another catwalk. He'd been running around inside some sort of giant wall that went on for as far as he could see, he fas hundreds of feet in the air near the top of the wall and he could see huge dense clouds of vapour pouring out of massive vents along it. As he looked bellow he was sure he recognised some of the structures in the snowy expanse,

"Am I in Tundratown? Is this the fucking control wall?!"

A loud thud snapped him out of his thoughts as he saw the door buckle slightly as something large hit it, with no time to loose he ran along the catwalk towards another doorway he could see roughly a hundred feet away, but he stopped when it opened and a large group of guards came out in heavy gear. He turned to run back where he came from only to see the door broken open and another large group coming out.

Max was surrounded on each side with no way out, as he looked back and forth between each group, sizing them up to see which was a better option to try and get past, Sokolov walked out from one of the groups with a half eaten apple in his paw. Max took a look over the edge of the catwalk, it was a long way down, he wasn't sure how far down it was to the snow below but the wind was blowing so hard up here that he was sure he wouldn't survive the fall. Sokolov took a bite out of his apple and tossed it over the edge casually and watched it fall for a few seconds before it disappeared from sight.

"Looks like a long way down Max, are you sure you want to risk it?"

"I'm sure it's better than whatever you've got planned"

Max backed up against the railing and stepped up onto the bottom rail, his pistol pointed at the ground for the moment but held ready, Sokolov knew Max had quick reactions and would be able to shoot him before he could do anything.

"Now now lets not be hasty. I brought you here to heal and to come to an agreement, nobody here is going to hurt you"

He took a step forward but stopped in his tracks as Max quickly brought the gun up and levelled it at Sokolov's head, he slowly raised his paws to try and calm Max down but he clicked the hammer back and said,

"Doesn't mean I won't hurt you"

"You can try, but you wont be able to do anything. Do you think I would bring you here if there was any chance of you damaging what I'm working on?"

"And what is that exactly?"

"Peace"

"You've got a lot of hardware for someone looking for peace, not to mention all the people you've killed so far"

"Acceptable casualties"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Me? I'm the only one who has his head screwed on. You're running around this city without a single fucking idea of what is happening in this world, you are so blinded by the thought of getting revenge for your _poor Sarah_ that all you can think about is hunting me down, you've missed all the signs of what's coming. The whispers, the crawling feeling under your skin, you can sense them but you ignored it all. You ignored your duty as a Seeker, to destroy the enemy wherever it lies, to let none take hold!"

"Don't you bring her into this!"

"Why not? She deserved to die, all of the high command deserve to die. I brought them the means to end this war, I laid it all out before them, did I get a thank you? No! I got excommunicated from the Seekers, they didn't like the idea of losing control of their little world, that bitch was one of their cleaners"

"Liar! She was an analyst"

"She was an assassin and she would have killed you as well if I hadn't stepped in. You may be one of our strongest assets but it is so easy to pull the wool over your eyes. The Citadel does not assign analysts as handlers for Seekers, they send tough agents who can put us down if we don't follow our orders, after all we're just weapons to them"

Suddenly there was a sharp pain in the side of Max's neck, he reached up and felt something protruding and he pulled it out, a dart similar to those used by the ZPD.

"Better late than never Mr White"

"Sorry sir, traffic"

Max's vision shifted and he saw double. As the energy quickly sapped from him he tried to focus enough to get a shot off on Sokolov but when he pulled the trigger the bullet was way out and only succeeded in knocking a small piece of concrete out of the wall. Sokolov calmly walked over and took the gun from Max's paw, he was now slumped against the railing as he struggled desperately against the darts contents, Sokolov hunkered down next to Max and stared at him face to face,

"That's the second time you've turned down my offer in person. There won't be a third"

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a needle pen like the one that contained the combat cocktail, but this time Max could tell something was up, the skin on the back of his neck was crawling as he stared at the clear capsule filled with a dark liquid.

"I really hoped you would be more receptive to the idea of working towards a better future for our kind, but if you're going to be as block headed as you are then I have no choice"

All Max could do was make illegible sounds in protest as Sokolov stuck the needle in his neck and injected it's contents into him. A burning sensation that rapidly grew in intensity surged through his body as he writhed uncontrollably, the last thing he saw before his vision was engulfed in black was Sokolov's grin.

* * *

AN - Sorry for the delay with this one, haven't been very well lately which drained any motivation i had for writing. More to come.


	34. (Arc 2) Chapter 16 (Part 1)

The crack of a bullet whizzing past Max's head forced him to duck behind a dumpster as more shots pinged against the metal dumpsters body, after a few seconds he popped up and fired three shots from his assault rifle back at his attackers in black uniforms and gas masks hitting one of them in the shoulder. As the other attacker pulled their colleague behind cover he looked a few feet to his side to White who was crouched behind a forklift truck, the pair of them were in the large loading area of an industrial complex that would usually be packed with mammals hard at work at this time of day, but there was nobody else around. White fired a short burst at their attackers as they stuck their heads around the corner, his bullets took a chunk out of the wall missing them by an inch. A quick look over his shoulder let Max know that the loading bay's shutters into the building were open, he called out to white as he fired another round.

"We're almost there White, you go I'll cover"

White got up and dashed across the loading area as Max peppered the wall where their attackers had hidden behind, the wall was now resembling Swiss cheese as White jumped up the five feet onto the concrete loading platform and ducked inside taking cover behind the shutter door-frame.

"Max, your turn!"

Max quickly changed his magazine and ran from behind the dumpster, he was halfway across the loading area when one of the attackers popped out aiming at him, White spotted him and opened fire shredding the mammals armour and turning him into a bloody mess on the floor. As White focused on the one mammal another came out from a different side and fired at him, he ducked inside as the bullets cracked around him. Just as Max jumped into the doorway there was a louder single shot and Max stumbled forward and fell to his knees as White pulled a lever on the wall dropping the heavy shutter door that locked as soon as it hit the ground. White went to help Max up but he was already getting to his feet with a grunt, he reached around his shoulder a yanked something out before throwing it on the floor with a clinking sound against the concrete floor. White looked at it,

"Metal dart?"

"It doesn't matter what it is"

There was a loud smashing noise as the shutter rattled a little, they could just make out the voices of a larger group outside than they had believed they were up against as well as the sound of a vehicle arriving. Max checked the chamber of his rifle to make sure it was loaded.

"That door won't hold them back for long, we need to get back to...to.."

His arm was starting to spasm, a feeling that quickly began spreading across his body making every muscle tense up painfully. White grabbed him as he lost the ability to stand up within a couple of seconds and sat him down against a nearby support pillar.

"Shit, what the hell was in that"

"Hold still Max"

White pulled a pouch out of his cargo trousers and took out a small air driven syringe and jabbed it into his leg. Max's face was contorted in pain as his shaking got more severe for a moment before subsiding, his breathing was short and rapid and he was sweating profusely.

"That should help with the pain. I need to get you back to Joseph, he can figure this out"

A loud crash from within the building made White grab his rifle,

"Wait here Max, I'll be back soon"

White slowly and quietly made his way through the wide hallways built for forklift trucks deeper into the building, it was a huge production room filled with massive machines used to make steel plates that was poorly lit, a few forklift trucks were parked off to the side next to storage racks that were almost two stories high and full of pallets of metal. He was roughly halfway through the room when he heard a clinking noise, he spun around with his rifle raised to see a bolt rocking back and forth on the floor as it came to a stop. He stood stock still, listening carefully as he heard movement above him. Spotting a tool cabinet nearby he stepped over to it and stood his rifle against it as he picked up a sledgehammer. Gripping it tight in both hooves he walked along the room slowly as he listened until he heard what he was searching for.

"You may have outnumbered us out there, but its just you and me in here"

He swung the sledgehammer with immense strength into the base of one of the support legs, there was a deafening clang as the head of the hammer tore through the bolts holding the frame together. Almost instantly the weight of the pallets shifted and the frame began bending as it collapsed in on itself, as the metal contorted and slammed into the ground there was a yelp of pain as one of the mammals who had been attacking them, who had been hiding on top of the racks, fell onto the mess of toughened metal landing on his back. Before the mammal could recover White leant in and ripped the gas mask off.

"Hello Liam. You doing Marchenko's bidding?"

He tossed the hammer aside and grabbed Liam by his combat vest lifting him into the air, Liam hit at Whites arms but the bulls arms were like tree trunks. White quickly changed his grip, grabbing Liam by the throat with one hoof as he pulled back with the other to punch him, with little time Liam drew his sidearm and fired it blindly in Whites direction. He heard a few splattering sounds and White dropped him to his feet before being immediately backhanded with enough force to send him tumbling backwards several feet across the room. Liam gasped as the wind was knocked from him, as he pulled himself up he saw White pick up his pistol that had fell from his paw from the force of Whites attack. He could clearly see a number of bullet wounds in Whites chest but the bull didn't seem to notice them as he grabbed the pistol in both hoofs and crushed it together with little effort shattering it into smaller pieces. He let the pieces fall to the floor as he scooped up his rifle, and as White turned around Liam was already on his feet and running through the warren like corridors of the complex. As he ran looking for a way out, or a weapon, he could hear the almost joyful voice of White calling behind him

"Run Liam, It's just you and me, let's have some fun before I kill you"

Liam ran blindly through the building not knowing where he was going into what looked like a cafeteria, after pausing for a second to take in the environment he ran past the rows of tables and chairs and behind the serving counter into the kitchen. He ripped the draws open one by one tossing items aside that weren't useful,

"C'mon there's got to be a knife here somewhere"

He opened a cupboard next to the oven and spotted a knife block, he grabbed the largest handle and pulled out a large sharp knife that looked well maintained, just as he did he had to duck as shots pinged into the wall just above his head shattering the tiles that decorated the kitchen. Liam scurried across the floor behind the tables and through a different door into the hall as White continued to fire at him missing him by only inches each time, Whites laughter echoed around as reloaded the rifle. Rounding a corner at the end of the hall gave Liam enough chance to use his radio as he looked for a way out,

"Frank I'm in trouble here I really need to your help, like right now"

"The door's are welded shut, we're trying to cut through the loading door"

"There's a roof access in the manufacturing hall, west side, get in here now!"

His call ended just as he ran into a smaller storage hall, this hall was filled with crates and other palleted goods but it missed one key thing, there was no exit except for the way he had come.

"Shit"

He knew White wasn't far behind him, he ducked behind a pile of crates and forced himself to breath steadily as he gripped the knife tightly as he had been trained in the military. Unable to see anything in the room except for a small sliver of the entranceway he waited patiently. He didn't have to wait long, within a minute White calmly walked into the room with the rifle held loosely by his side, he stood in the entranceway and looked around for a moment before entering, his hoofs clicking against the concrete floor as he slowly walked into the room. Liam tensed up as White let off a long burst of fire shredding many of the crates on the other side of the room, as he dropped the empty magazine and loaded another he started to calmly talk,

"You know you were never going to get out of here alive Liam, did you honestly think after being invisible in this city for so long that you would find us just walking around the streets in broad daylight?"

He fired off another burst pinging bullets all around Liam and raining wooden chunks down around him from the racking above him.

"No, Max and I deliberately let you find us. You're a smart mammal, I'm sure you can figure out why killing you would be helpful to Joseph. Max and Joseph are a lot stronger than they let on and soon this whole city will get to witness it all as I have done "

The room fell silent for a moment, from listening to White Liam knew he was close. He gripped the knife tightly and was about to charge from his hiding place when the crate he was hiding behind shattered as White punched his way through it and grabbed his vest throwing him across the room into another crate.

"How does it feel to become the hunted?"

White levelled the rifle at Liam's chest and fired twice, two puffs of material flew up from around his heart, Liam gasped as it felt like he had been hit with the sledgehammer.

"Hmm? No blood, that's a good vest you have, that's not going to protect your head though"

Liam brought his arms over his head to try and protect it as White raised the rifle higher. There was a loud bang as the rifle discharged but nothing hit Liam, he separated his arms to see Max grasping White's trigger hoof with one paw while the other was grabbing White's neck forcing his head back. White snarled as Max crushed his hoof forcing him to drop the rifle, White managed to spin around to face him. He swung for Max but he ducked under it and delivered a punch to White's stomach hard enough to make him double over. He didn't let up and stamped down on White's knee shattering it and dropping him down Max's chest height. Max grabbed him in a tight headlock and spun him over quickly eliciting a loud snap from White's neck before he let him fall to the floor like a lead weight. Max breathed in heavily and looked at his paws for a moment before flexing them and turning to Liam who had grabbed the rifle and had it pointing at him. Liam looked in Max's eyes, they had been black earlier when he had shot him with the dart but now they were almost completely back to their yellow state.

"Easy Liam, I'm not your enemy"

"Help me with that, tell me something about me"

"You're the deputy director of the ZBI"

"No, something that isn't in some database somewhere"

Max paused for a moment then calmly said

"You wear your dead wife's ring on a chain around your neck, its a gold ring with a circular shaped emerald"

Liam stood fast for a few seconds before relaxing,

"Harsh, but true enough"

"Sorry, seemed the easiest thing to mention. I don't know what was in that dart Liam but I'm glad you hit me with it"

"That's a long story, I'll tell you about it when this is all over"

Hurried footsteps could be heard in the corridor and eight heavily armed mammals in gear like Liam's burst into the room with their weapons aimed at Max before one of them called out for them to stand down. The mammal pulled his gas mask off and looked at Max with a mix of shock and gratefulness,

"Holy shit it worked, guess I owe you twenty bucks Liam"

"Call it even Frank. Max this is Frank, he heads up Marchenko's quick reaction group"

"Marchenko? You work for Marchenko?!"

"Wow easy there big boy, I know you two have some sort of beef but we have bigger problems right now"

"He's right Max, Sokolov's threat has grown drastically, he's going to launch a large attack soon"

"You were inside his organisation. Do you have any idea where it's going to take place?"

"No, there's a lot of fuzzy information up there, but I know where his base is, he's using the Tundratown temperature wall"

Frank and Liam looked at each other worriedly,

"What?"

Liam answered him,

"Max we hit that base three days ago, it's empty"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Sokolov captured me, tried to get me to work with him willingly. I tried to escape but..."

"What is it?"

"Sokolov had people working on trucks, 3 of them, they were fitting them with large metal crates, I don't know what was in them but they looked heavy. The trucks had a logo on the side, a blue diamond"

"It's a start. Here"

Frank grabbed a duffel bag from one of his soldiers and handed it to Max, he opened it to see a black uniform inside.

"What's this?"

"We're bringing you back into the fold, times running short"

"Things have changed a lot since you've been missing Max, we're playing catchup"

* * *

Ten minutes later everyone was loaded into two military police humvee's and hurtling down the highway into the heart of the city on the way to the ZBI HQ, Max was now dressed like everyone else and well armed. Frank had called in what little information Max had been able to give them as they joined the main highway that ran through and connected every district, Max could see a huge traffic jam going back miles of mammals heading towards the two bridges that were the only road route out of the city and a large number of military vehicles and soldiers scattered around wherever he looked,

"What the hells going on Liam?"

"While you've been gone attacks have increased across the city, some of them were same chemical used in the hospital. City's hall was hit along with our port and a school attended by many kits of Zootopia's high ranking officials. Every one of them is quarantined"

"Jesus"

"That's not the half of it. The organisation's HQ is destroyed, Hugo's dead along with most of the directors"

Liam saw the instant look of worry on Max's face and raised a paw.

"Don't worry Claire's fine she's coordinating with the military. Turns out Marchenko was next in line after Hugo and has taken control, they're calling themselves the Camarilla now and he's not as secretive as Hugo was. With everything going to shit they initiated Martial Law in the hopes of smoking out Sokolov"

"Yeah that didn't work"

"Thanks for the input Frank. Five hours ago we got wind of Sokolov's intent to launch a massive attack against the city, we think this is the big one Max that you warned us about. Before we could organise a response it was leaked to the media, probably by Sokolov, not everyone believed it but enough people have to cause gridlock at our only road routes out of the city"

"So what's the plan"

"Well we were hopping that the doctors miracle cure would get you to give up everything on Sokolov, looks like his _cure_ isn't as good as he claimed"

"Not helpful Frank"

"Couldn't we use the jam cams to find the trucks?"

"We could if they were functioning properly, the server's were built into City Halls basement, they've been on the blink since the attack, it's left us partially blind"

"There's got to be something"

Everyone lurched forward in their seats as the humvee slid to a sudden and abrupt stop, the driver slammed the bullhorn on and stuck his finger up at the UPS box truck with 4 large military bumper stickers that had pulled out in front of them unexpectedly as they were about to cross a checkpoint.

"Sorry sir"

"It's OK, just get us there in one piece"

As they slowly manoeuvred around the truck that had taken up most of the room Max couldn't help but stare at the soldiers at the checkpoint, most of them looked young and inexperienced with none of them looking older than 25. Frank was looking at them as well, he quietly and matter of factly stated,

"These guys are national guard pups who've never seen combat, how are they supposed to stand up to a well organised group like Sokolov's"

Max clenched his eyes and grimaced as images flashed through his mind, he grabbed his head with one paw and grunted for a moment before opening his now watering eyes again. Frank looked with concern between Max and Liam,

"Side affect?"

"Doc said there could be some"

"You have soldiers arriving today don't you, not national guard I mean full time professionals"

"How the hell do you know that?"

"The troops in the city already don't have much transport equipment for things like barricades and barbed wire, they're using commandeered trucks to move everything, and the soldiers that will be arriving wont have any either cause they're coming by air. That's how he's going to do it. He's going to attack the soldiers landing at the airport"

"Are you sure?"

"Can you think of a better target? The highways suspended he can't get to those leaving the city, and the last place you'll look for someone is under your own nose. He's a soldier he can easily talk his way past a checkpoint"

"Frank when's the transporter supposed to arrive?"

"In about 30 minutes"

Frank was already grabbing his radio and calling it in as the driver hit the lights and siren as he spun the humvee around and sped off in the direction of the airport with the second humvee following quickly behind.

"Corporal how long till we get to the airport?"

"If we keep this speed up sir fifteen minutes"

"That's not going to give us much time to search the airport"

"You don't need to search the whole thing, is there a specific area where trucks are kept except for when in use?"

"Hangar five was re-purposed for a motor pool, it's next to where we're based"

"Fuck I can't get hold of anyone at the airport, channels are blocked. Why attack the airport, that's only going to bring in heavier reinforcements"

"He's always got a plan, there's more to this than a bombing"

"I hope your ready for Max, I really do"

* * *

The front entrance to the airport had been heavily barricaded with the six lanes that lead to it being reduced to only two with heavy concrete barriers topped with barbed wire stopping everything from going around. The twenty soldiers guarding the outer gate were stood at their posts looking mostly agitated as they tried to funnel all the citizens who were trying to get into the airport, many of them believing the media hype to be just that, through the narrow entrance when they heard the sound of sirens approaching. One of the soldiers in a guard tower who was looking down the road through the scope of his rifle called down to the officer in charge who was persuading a couple to just carry on through the gate as they had stopped to argue with the soldiers,

"Sir, MPs approaching fast"

"That's the last thing we fucking need right now"

The soldiers watched as the two humvee's squeezed through the traffic as far as they could before giving up, the sirens died out and the doors opened as everyone poured out of the vehicles. A young soldier stood manning the barrier arm looked at the soldiers in black uniforms running between the cars approaching them,

"I thought MPs wore the same as us"

"They're not MPs son"

The soldiers in black pushed through the crowd which caused an uproar among the citizens who had been queueing for ages to get in, Frank was the first to get to the gate and was casually saluted by the officer,

"Sir, what can I do for you?"

"Do your radios work?"

"Yes sir"

Frank and everyone else started taking the radios from the soldiers, the officer was about to protest when Frank interrupted him.

"Call base command tell them we have a 10-89 at hanger 4, they are not to approach till we give the go ahead. Lets go"

The officer got into the makeshift station next to the gate and got on the stationary radio as Frank, Max and evener else commandeered two cars at the front of the queue as the owners protested to the soldiers manning the gate. As they sped across an empty runway towards the hangars Max looked at the clock on the dashboard,

"We're almost out of time"

"Over there, it's a transporter"

Liam was pointing to a C-130 troop carrier that looked like it was on final approach on the neighbouring runway.

"There's one of the trucks!"

"Christ it's heading out to the runway already"

"Bravo you take the truck we'll take the hangar"

The car behind them slid out from behind them and began pursuing the truck that was halfway across their runway and heading towards the one that the transporter was coming to land on. They could just hear the start of gunfire coming from behind them as the corporal slid the car into the entrance of the hangar and everyone piled out. There were several armed mammals in here and nobody on either side waisted any time before firing at each other. Bullets flew around everywhere as automatic gunfire filled the air as a base alarm began to sound. Max who was ducked behind the open rear door of the car fired at a yak who was stood in front of another truck with a diamond logo on it as it went to move to another vehicle to hide behind, he hit it in the neck and head as Liam shot a bear in the chest dropping it like a sack of potatoes. Frank and the corporal had managed to move around to the side but were now being bogged down by a large number of enemies that had a bead on them. Max dashed across and ducked down next to Liam behind a truck cab that was undergoing maintenance as Liam continued to fire at any mammal who wasn't with the group.

"We need to push through, we need to get to Sokolov"

"How'd you know he's here?"

"I can feel him, he's close"

"He's got a small army here"

"It's not small, and they're well armed"

A bullet cracked just above his head and he popped up to shoot a goat right between the eyes,

"The longer we're here the more chance he haws to get away"

"There's too many of them"

The sound of a vehicle made him turn and see the second car skid to a halt not far from them and the rest of the group jump out already firing at Sokolov's crew with the truck they had gone after smoking in the background, Bravo's leader fired as he moved over towards Max and Liam,

"We got this, you go we'll cover"

With Bravo now here to help the group slowly began to advance as they cut down one after the other of Sokolov's crew as Max charged forward into a warthog and sent it flying into the side of a truck as he peppered anyone who got in his way with his rifle. Sokolov's crew were so distracted by the soldiers as some of the bases security also began to arrive that most of them failed to notice Max running between their ranks as he weaved in and out of cover looking for Sokolov. He could tell he was close, closer than he had been for a while, as he turned a corner into an extension attached to the side of the hangar that was used for clerical staff a jaguar tried to grab his rifle, Max jammed it against the jaguars stomach and held the trigger down emptying the last few rounds into it's stomach, he let the rifle fall to the ground with the jaguar and drew his pistol just in time to shoot a hippo in the head three times as it came around the corner with an automatic shotgun in it's hoofs. He grabbed the shotgun from it as it fell and holstered his pistol just as he kicked the door in front of him so hard that it came off the hinges. Max's adrenaline was running wild as the battle raged behind him and as soon as he could see the three mammals in the room he opened fire shredding the first two with buckshot before levelling it at the last mammal who had a remote in his paw, the sound of a powerful plane engine overhead signalled that the transporter had aborted it's landing and was flying away.

"It's over Sokolov"

"Not so fast Max, there's still a huge amount of chemical weapons here, I press this button and they all go off"

"So what's stopping you?"

Max didn't wait for a reply, he fired a shell shattering the remote and turning Sokolov's paw into mush. Sokolov yelled in pain that was cut short as Max threw the shotgun to the floor and charged into Sokolov lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the desk behind him crushing it under his strength. Max grabbed Sokolov by the throat with one paw as he pummelled Sokolov's now unprotected face, as he was no longer wearing the mask, with the other paw with enough force to crush a normal mammals bones. Sokolov wasn't weak though and he hooked his leg behind Max's and force them to roll off the remains of the desk onto the floor. Now on top of Max Sokolov jabbed him in the throat with his stump as Max tried to grab his throat again, Max misjudged his reach and Sokolov bit into his paw making it bleed. Sokolov grabbed the hilt of Max's knife in his vest and Max grabbed his paw to to try and stop him, they struggled against each other with neither showing signs of giving up. Suddenly Sokolov let go of Max's paw and head butted him in the nose. Max's grip on Sokolov's wrist weakened for a moment giving him enough time to snap the knife out of its sheath, but before he could strike him Max rolled his legs back and kicked Sokolov in the chest pushing him away from him. Sokolov dropped the knife as he fell back, he rolled over and scrambled across the floor, as he grabbed it and turned round he was knocked back to the floor as Max brought a chair down onto his head shattering it into pieces. He didn't let him get back to his feet, he grabbed the fur on the back of his head and kneed him in the face again and again knocking some of Sokolov's teeth out and making him cough up blood.

"I'm going to make this as painful as I can Joseph. You deserve nothing less for destroying everything!"

He let Sokolov go and kicked him in the face, he slammed to the floor and was quiet for a second before he started to laugh in a broken way that put Max on edge.

"It wasn't just me. I told you before Max you're predictable, my campaign isn't over yet"

"It is over Sokolov, you die here"

"A necessary sacrifice, while you've been busy chasing me others have been putting the final touches in place"

He pulled himself up into a sitting position against a cabinet, blood was pouring from his mouth and nose as a large piece of wood stuck out from the side of his head from the chair.

"But you already knew that Max, you know something's wrong, something missing"

Max's skin crawled, every time he had been close to Sokolov since arriving in Zootopia he had always felt off in some way but now the feeling was gone. Alarm bells started ringing in his head and he dashed over to Sokolov crouching down next to him and rummaging through his pockets as Sokolov began to laugh again. Unable to find anything he grabbed Sokolov's shirt and lifted him limply off the floor,

"Where's the orb? Where is it you sadistic fuck?!"

A broken smile spread across Sokolov's face,

"Simmons has it. He's been my eye and ears in the organisation since the beginning. You can't win Max, it's too late"

Max dropped Sokolov and grabbed his radio,

"Liam can you hear me? It's Max. Anyone copy?"

Running footsteps from behind him made him spin around as Frank came running into the room, Max was about to say something when Frank brought his gun up and fired two shots, the bullets snapped past him and as he turned he saw Sokolov with a small pistol in his paw held in Max's direction. Max watched as two holes in Sokolov's chest were seeping blood, and seconds later he went limp as bubble filled blood ran from his mouth. Max stared at Sokolov's body with uncertain feelings, he was glad he was dead but something felt off about it, he quickly shook the feeling though as Frank grabbed his shoulder.

"You alright Max?"

"No, we're in trouble"

He ran past Frank who had trouble keeping up with Max as the ran into the hangar that was now filled with dead bodies from both sides, more and more army personnel were turning up and securing the area as Max spotted Liam who was searching one of Sokolov's crew and ran over to him.

"Liam we've got a problem"

"Max what happened to Sokolov?"

"He's dead but that's not important, this isn't the main attack"

"What do you mean?"

"Sokolov said Simmons is working for him, he gave him the orb"

"Fuck"

"If he knows how to trigger it we're all fucked he'll open a breach"

"Orb, breach, what the hell?"

"Long story Frank, how long will it take us to get to Holder building in the meadows?"

"With the roads the way they are over an hour, but if we can get those little-birds over there spun up then 10 minutes"

"Do it I'll get us clearance, Max how do we stop this?"

"By not letting it happen"

* * *

AN - This is part one of the final chapter in this arc, as i was writing it it got longer and longer so i have decided to split it into two separate pieces. I'm writing the next peice already so it shouldn't be long before it is up as well.

* * *

AN Update - Due to a problem in work most of my time up to christmas is being used up and i will be visiting family over the christmas holidays so next chapter wont be up until new year. Have a good Christmas and New year everybody.


	35. (Arc 2) Chapter 16 (Part 2)

New Note at bottom.

* * *

200 miles away from Zootopia in Bunny Burrow Nick was pushing a dopey Judy through the corridors of Bunny Burrow General. After being severely injured in Raya's attack Judy was put into an induced coma to allow her to try and heal better, but the outlook was far from promising. With the doctors prognosis being that she may die Nick reluctantly agreed with Stu and Bonnie to have her transported to Bunny Burrow to be closer to the rest of her family in case the worst should happen, but after nearly 3 weeks she had recovered enough to be brought out of the coma and now nearly 4 weeks later she was well enough to be allowed to see visitors. Still weak from her medication and the toll the injury had taken on her she was unable to walk and so Nick was dutifully wheeling her around on a wheelchair that had been covered in stickers that her many nieces and nephews had sent her with anticipation for today. As Nick rolled her into the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor Judy couldn't help but laugh at Nick's reflection in the mirror like metal wall of the elevator.

"Those glasses make you look like a mad scientist"

"Oh? I'll have to ask Madge to get you a pair as well, I can't be the only one sporting the latest fashion"

A warm smile spread over Nicks face as he took in his dorky reflection, it had been the hardest month of his life seeing Judy suffer like she had, just hearing her laugh again helped to lift his spirits drastically. Madge's glasses looked more like a pair of swimming goggles with extra attachments but they had made him feel like he wasn't worthless during their stay, although he still couldn't stand bright lights it did allow him to lead a moderately normal life while his eyes continued to heal and it meant he could keep himself busy and not fall apart completely. Now that Judy was awake he felt like everything would get back to normal, slowly, but it was within reach, and as the the elevator doors opened and he heard the playful sounds of several younger mammals playing in the visitor area he was filled with relief for them both. Judy shifted in her seat and something about it looked off,

"You alright?"

"yeah, just don't let them jump on me, I don't feel like being at the bottom of a dog pile"

"Don't worry, everyone is going to be on their best behaviour"

Judy sarcastically replied

"Coming from you that worries me"

This time it was his turn to laugh and he did so warmly, he wheeled her through the open double doors to the visitor room and she gasped as she saw everyone who had come to visit. The room was incredibly large, given that bunnies were notorious for having large families the hospital had constructed a special wing with halls and garden large enough to accommodate most large families, but the Hopps family was so large it was pushed to capacity as it seemed that every member of the family that could be there was there from the oldest generation to some of the youngest. An almost deafening chorus of _surprise_ rang out from everyone that completely drowned out the almost cinema sized TV that was on the wall playing re-runs of kids shows as Nick brought her to a stop next to Bonnie, Stu and some of the older members who had gathered in a group as they waited for her arrival, Judy couldn't help but notice the tables lining the wall filled with party food, the smell of which made her stomach growl but nobody seemed to have noticed over the chorus.

"Oh guys you shouldn't have"

"Nonsense"

Nick gathered a chair and sat down next to Judy,

"We have a lot of celebrating to do"

"But I'm not out of here yet"

"We aren't just here for that, what month is it?"

"um... May?"

"Yup, which means this is a belated birthday party"

Out of nowhere she found herself bombarded with kits holding presents eager for them to be the first to have their opened as adults watched in amusement.

A few hours later with the party having run down with many of the guests having left it was now mostly the more direct Hopps family members who were left in the hall enjoying the peace that it brought. As Judy, Nick, Stu, Bonnie and Marian were deciding on what they should all do together to celebrate when Judy would be discharged from the hospital they were interrupted by disappointed grumblings from Bonnie's father, a very old rabbit who was very vocal about his opinions and usually when he started grumbling it led to one of his _episodes_ that the family liked to avoid. Judy mouthed _oh boy_ sarcastically to Nick as she turned around to ask what had gotten the old rabbit wound up, Judy seemed to be one of the few mammals that could get through to him when he started acting up. The TV that had been showing a cooking program that pop-pop, as Judy called him, was an avid fan of was now only displaying a colour test page with a message in the middle saying that they would be right back.

"Blasted technology"

"It's probably just the signal pop-pop, it'll be back in a minute you'll see"

"In my day things were made to last, not like this cheep junk nowadays"

Not one to pass up on an opportunity Nick asked with a smile on his face,

"Did they even have TV's in your day?"

Judy was going to say something to him when the TV screen flashed, but it didn't show the program any more, instead there was a black screen. It emitted three quavering tones before letting out a continuous high pitched one that made everyone's fur stand on end and send shiver down their spines as everyone sat in silence, a few passing nurses heard the sounds and came rushing in but nobody said anything as white text began to appear on the screen as a computerized voice read out,

"This is an Emergency Action Notification. All broadcast stations and cable systems shall transmit this Emergency Action Notification Message. This station has interrupted its regular programming at the request of the White House to participate in the Emergency Alert System. During this emergency, most stations will remain on the air providing news and information to the public in assigned areas. This is Burrow News Network. We will continue to serve the Tri-Burrow area. If you are not in this Local Area, you should tune to stations providing news and information for your Local Area. You are listening to the Emergency Alert System serving the Tri-Burrow area. Do not use your telephone. The telephone lines should be kept open for emergency use."

One of the nurses had dashed out of the room as it had started and now there were several medical staff in the room, everyone was hushing each other to hear what was about to be said,

"This afternoon at 4 PM Eastern Standard Time an unknown enemy force launched a large scale attack originating in Zootopia and A National State of Emergency has now been declared. All citizens within the Bunny Burrow and Deerbrooke County areas are to remain inside, lock all doors and windows and follow the instruction of law enforcement and military personnel If possible ensure that a supply of water and food for 3 days is available as well as a radio for alert updates".

A roaring noise from outside that had slowly been building now rapidly increased in volume culminating in a loud bang that shattered the windows, this was quickly followed by a second, third and fourth boom as four jet fighters blasted overhead in the direction of Zootopia.

* * *

"Do not exit your vehicles. It is not safe to be on the streets. Keep your doors and windows locked".

It was the same message being repeated over and over through mobile public address speakers that the military had brought in as part of their martial law equipment, now it was being used to issue instructions to the millions of mammals desperately trying to escape the spreading attack on the city. The military, in its infinite wisdom, had decided that the easiest way to detect any possible threats entering the city in their search for Sokolov was to seal all ways in and out except for 3, the airport, the Zootopia rail line leading to Bunny Burrow and the Rhodes suspension bridge in south east Savanna Central that connected to the mainland. Now however their decision was hampering their evacuation efforts with traffic stretching back as far as the eye could see, and coming from every street, all slowed to a stop by a mangled overturned heavy truck caused by someone trying to force their way through as armoured reinforcements tried to enter the city. As the military desperately tried to clear the way once more the driver of a ZNN van stuck two hundred meters from the bridge was hopping through the radio channels in frustration searching for any updates, every channel was playing a computerised emergency message that had been periodically updated to keep the citizens informed of evacuation routes and make shift landing zones for helicopters to pick up those that had become stranded. He rubbed his large bear claw over his snout and let out a sigh, from the compartment in the back where the broadcast equipment was housed popped the head of a female german Sheppard,

"Any news?"

He shook his head, the distant sounds of explosions as the air force dropped bombs on the enemy could still be heard over everything.

"None, it hasn't updated in over an hour"

"I hope that means they finally have it contained"

"You and me both. How is she?"

The german Sheppard looked back behind her for a moment at the smaller figure sitting at the desk computer console that took up most of the back of the van, the little figure was Marigold and she was tapping away and looked completely engrossed in what she was doing. The german Sheppard turned back round and said in a quiet voice,

"I'm worried about her, god knows what it was like inside the studio"

"She was lucky we were coming back at the time"

They sat quiet for a moment, it had been a rough day for everyone but they had definitely been some of the luckiest until now, they had been bringing their van back from its yearly maintenance when the emergency alert system had activated, by the time they had made it to the ZNN studios it was being overrun and staff were running out of the huge building in terror. They hadn't even made it into the studios parking lot when Marigold dove through the open passenger window and yelled at them to drive as fast as they could, she was covered in blood and they almost stopped instead of doing as she was demanding, that was until they heard something roaring over the peoples screams, after that he put his foot down and they didn't stop until they reached the bridge.

The bear leant over and opened the glove compartment, grabbed a small brown paper bag and took a candy bar out of it before passing it to the german Sheppard,

"Here, make sure she eats something too"

The german Sheppard gave the bear a quick peck on the cheek,

"Thank you Zack"

She disappeared into the back as he tried the radio again and sat down next to Marigold. The trembling rabbits usually yellow fur was matted with dried blood that wasn't hers and the left sleeve of her jacket had been torn off when they had found her, but she didn't seem to notice as she flicked between her cellphone and the computer which she had linked together, she didn't even notice the german Sheppard until she put the bag in front of her making Marigold jump.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you"

"It's OK Rosa"

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Um, this morning. I was going to grab lunch when..."

She shook her head to clear the thoughts of the studio and got back to what she was doing, Rosa didn't want to press her for details yet.

"Any luck?"

"I think so. The military shut down the cell network and blocked most lines but I think i've found a work around that they missed, just a couple more clicks and...there we go"

"How do you know how to do this?"

"My room-mate, she's a conspiracy theorist and tech whiz, always paranoid but really knows her stuff"

There was a quiet beep as her cellphone got a signal, which was quickly followed by a barrage of alerts of worried texts and missed calls from her family that were being sent one after another for hours. She hadn't even begun reading the first text when the phone began to ring again showing a picture of Bonnie on the muzzle-time app. Answering the call and hearing her mothers voice cracked what was left of Marigolds shell and she started to sob as they talked. Rosa thought it best to leave her alone for a moment and slipped into the front of the van and sat down next to Zack who was pointing to the 1 free lane of the bridge, a column of tanks was finally rolling into the city as more jets flew overhead.

"Bridge must be cleared"

"Yup, maybe half an hour and we'll be over on the other side"

The rumbling of the tanks was intimidating, but it made them feel safer at the same time knowing that there was something between them and the chaos in the rest of the city. Once the tanks had passed they could hear Marigold in the back, her voice was still breaking but she sounded better than when they had found her. Zack was staring at the traffic, looking to see if there was any movement, without looking at Rosa he asked,

"Heard from your brother?"

"Not for a week. I know he was stationed here"

"Think he got out?"

"Knowing Frank he's probably got his claws stuck into this rather than getting out, it'll take a lot to stop him though"

"Your brother ain't normal, but he is tough I'll give him that. Looks like we're out of here"

Zack turned the ignition and began crawling forward with the traffic as it began to move once again, they hadn't got 20 feet however when the engine cut out and the van came to a stop.

"God dammit not now"

Zack turned the key again and again but nothing happened,

"What the fuck"

"Hey look, nobody else is moving"

He looked up and saw that Rosa was right, everyone had come to a stop, not only that he noticed that the public address system had gone quiet as well, street lamps that had come on not long ago as night was beginning to set in had also turned off.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Power cut?"

"That wont affect the vehicles"

Marigold crawled through into the front with a worried look on her face,

"Everything's turned off, my cell the computer, everything"

Rosa's attention was drawn by a group of soldiers had been in a truck heading into the city when everything stopped, now the soldiers were grabbing heavy gear out of the back and something about it put her on alert.

"Get out we're going now"

Neither Zack or Marigold argued, as they got out of the van and started heading towards the bridge every other motorist seemed to have the same idea and were following suit, but all began to run towards the bridge when the sound of heavy machine gun fire and yelling of soldiers erupted from behind them. Panic instantly set in as everyone pushed forward, fighting to get between or over the vehicles stuck in the road as unearthly roars and screeches began to drown out the gunfire. Zack grabbed Marigold and put her on his shoulder as she nearly got crushed by a rhino that wasn't looking where he was going as everyone ran for the bridge. From where she was Marigold had a clear view over the crowd, thousands of puppets and huge black creatures on all fours she had never seen before were pouring from every street like a river and washing over the soldiers and anyone else too slow to escape them. Bullets cracked over their heads as the soldiers on the bridge itself fired everything they had at the mass of creatures but it did nothing to stop them advancing faster than a cheetah could run. Zack wasn't going to stop though and barrelled through the first military checkpoint with Rosa keeping close behind him, the screams echoing in their ears making them run faster than they knew they could. They were about a quarter of the way over and Marigold watched as a tank shell hurtled past them and cut through an unlucky elephant who was climbing over a car as it fired before the shell slammed into a pickup and flipping it onto one of the creatures, in no time at all the creature pushed it off and was back onto its massive claws charging forwards straight at them.

"Zack look out!"

The creature leaped forward swinging its claw in a haymaker just as Zack twisted around to see. The claw tore through the bear like a hot knife through butter, missing Marigold by inches, the force sending her flying off the side of the bridge into the water bellow. The water was ice cold and black as the ace of spades and her eyes stung as she opened them enough to see light above her, she kicked hard against her body wanting to tense up to try and keep her warm, when she broke through to the surface she gasped, bright flashes from explosions illuminated the bridge and river front as mammals trying to escape and parts of killed mammals fell into the river around her. The river bank of the mainland was nearly a mile from where she was but she didn't care about the distance, desperately she fought against the cold and swam hard for it as the battle raged above her, until she heard the roaring of an engine. Two jets were approaching fast and she knew what was going to happen, she quickly changed direction and began to swim out into the bay away from the bridge as fast as she could but it was too late. She saw the light from the jets missiles launch and seconds later huge explosions tore into the support towers of the bridge, whining and creaking metal followed before the entire bridge collapsed in sections as the concrete tower bases were vaporised in the explosions. Massive support cables swung through the air like cheese wire as debris rained down on everything bellow, the last thing she saw was the shadow of a car cast by the moonlight as it descended upon her.

* * *

Claire coughed and waved her paw in front of her face as she stood in the communications room of the ZBI HQ, a thick cloud of cheap cigarette smoke hung in the air and a stream of fresh smoke rose from two lit cigarettes laid on the side of an ash tray that was overflowing with cigarette butts. They were on a desk next to a capybara who was talking into radio as he intently listened for a response into his headset,

"Sunray this is Baseplate, come in... Any stations this net come in"

"Anything?"

He sighed and sat back in his chair, took one cup of the headphones off and took a deep drag from the two cigarettes.

"Nothing, i've tried every frequency I know off and i've got absolutely zip off any of them"

"maybe the networks down"

"No the networks up, i've pinged it enough times to check that"

He spun his chair around to look at her,

"There's 3 options far as I can tell. One, they've blocked our access. Two, they're ignoring us or three, everyone's dead. None of these are good for us."

"Keep at it, right now getting through to someone's our best chance of getting out of here"

"Will do"

He spun around and started playing with the radio again as she left the room. She looked at her watch as she walked towards the mezzanine that ran the full height of the five storey building and saw that it was 2 am, she ran a paw over her face and muttered,

"10 hours, that's all it fucking took to lose the city"

The radio on her belt crackled to life just as she reached the mezzanine, a huge symbol of the ZBI shield hung from the ceiling over the lobby bellow where a handful of mammals were busy welding shut metal security shutters that had dropped over the doors and windows to stop the puppets that were banging on the glass from getting inside.

"Claire it's Alex, you read me?"

"Loud and clear, what you got for me?"

"I got good news and bad news. Good news is that we found a way to get to the reserve weapons cache, the bad news is that somebody else got here first, the rifles are gone and all that's left are a few pistols and a couple of boxes of bullets"

Claire hit her prosthetic arm against the metal paw-rail she was stood next to and swore under her breath, with the speed of the spread of infection through the city they had lost most of their agents and equipment, several sections of the building had also been overrun and the automatic interior security shutters had been the only thing stopping the entire building from being lost, but this had cut them off from most of the hidden cache's that Claire had placed throughout the building in case of a direct attack on the building from Sokolov.

"Alright grab whatever you can and get back here in one piece"

"Got it, we aggravated some of the infected as we passed through so we're going to take a longer way round, we'll go quiet till we're back"

"understood"

Claire walked over to an open elevator and pressed the button for the lobby, five hours ago something knocked out the power to the entire city and knocked out any electronics that weren't protected, luckily the ZBI HQ had it's own backup generator and the building was protected from electro magnetic weapons, now it was one of only a small few government buildings that had any power at all and it stood as a beacon for anyone looking for help. It wouldn't last much longer however as they only had enough fuel left to run the generators for 3 more hours and Claire was struggling to come up with a plan for when the power did run out.

The elevator pinged as it reached the lobby which was the busiest part of the building right now with eight staff and civilians working under the instruction of Senior Agent Gerald, the old rhino was working everyone hard and shouting at anyone who wasn't doing as he had instructed. Gerald's firm demeanour relaxed a little as Claire walked over to him, he didn't look angry just frustrated but he was still intimidating to those that didn't know him well.

"Hows it going down here?"

"We're almost finished here, after this I'm going to check in with the guys in the motor pool to make sure that's sealed too"

"Good"

He could see the distant expression on her face that he knew well from working with her and Liam for years,

"I take it things haven't turned out well your end?"

She shook her head,

"Shaun thinks we're being ignored by the military"

"hmm. Can't say I blame them for leaving us to be honest"

"Why do you say that?

"Look at what happened here in what, 9 or 10 hours? Zootopia's an island, If this got out of the city I don't know if the military would be able to contain it, at least here they have a chance of stopping it"

"And sacrifice everyone still inside?"

"Sometimes it's the only way. I don't like being here on this side of the water, but I see why they're doing it"

she sighed again,

"Then I suppose it's up to us to find a way out of the city, any ideas?"

"There's a maintenance access shaft a few blocks from here that leads to the tunnel, if it hasn't been sealed then it could bring us out behind the military's barricades, I would be very surprised if it isn't crammed with booby-traps though"

"I'll get some of the others preparing a distraction for us then so we can slip out if necessary, I'll give Shaun a couple more hours to get through before we"

"Get your fucking paws in the air now!"

The demanding voice came from one of the corridors and was quickly followed by lots more shouting, Claire and Gerald dashed towards the voices with their guns drawn to find german Sheppard in black military uniform pointing a rifle at two of her agents who were guarding a door to the motor pool beneath the building which was now half open, they were all yelling at each other to drop each others weapons while a deer in a black suit and labcoat that looked familiar was sprawled on the floor shaking in fear. Gunfire erupted from behind the door which was flung open and a wolf with a nasty wound on its left eye barrelled into the corridor in the same uniform as the dog before slamming it shut, Claire's eyes widened and she yelled at her agents,

"Hold your fire they're friendlies"

"They're behind us!"

The agents froze for a moment but Gerald moved forward quickly pushing them aside, the wolf held the door handle and pulled on it as hard as he could as be braced his feet against the wall. Screeching and snarling noises accompanied the banging of the door as things that shouldn't be tried to force it open. Gerald grabbed a metal bar that was protruding from a slot in the ceiling and pulled hard on it as he grabbed the wolf by it's vest and pulled him back, a roller bar shutter slid down from the ceiling and slammed into the locking latch in the floor just as a a group of puppets burst through the door, their arms flailing through the bars trying to grab any of the mammals there as their teeth snapped at them will snarling, their eyes yellow and black gunk dripping from their mouths. The wolf tapped Gerald's chest and let out a heavy breath of relief as he turned away from the shutter,

"Thanks big guy"

He went to grab the the deer by the collar but was stopped by Claire who gave him a hug without warning which caught him by surprise, it didn't last long though as Claire stood back and cleared her throat after realising what she had done.

"I'm glad you made it Max"

"It's good to see you too Claire"

The Shepard stepped up next to them so that he couldn't be missed,

"Sorry to interrupt but are you in charge ma'am?"

"I am"

"This is Claire Schwartzpelz ZBI Director, Claire this is Frank he's leading the quick reaction force for the Camarilla"

"Nice to meet you"

She held her paw out for him and he shook it briefly before pressing on, his voice had urgency in it.

"Director we need a working radio ASAP, do you have on here that I can use?"

"Ours works but we can't get hold of anyone, they aren't answering our calls"

"I can change that, where is it?"

"fifth floor just follow the signs"

Frank nodded in thanks and grabbed the deer by the collar before marching it unceremoniously out of the corridor towards the elevator, as he passed by Claire got a good look at his face, his fur soaking wet from tears.

"Isn't that Doctor Jenner? He left hours ago with an escort to evacuate from the city"

"It is, we found him in a destroyed mobile lab, he'd locked himself in one of the containment cells to protect himself from the puppets, the rest of the team was dead or missing"

"Christ"

"Sorry to interrupt but how did you get in here Max?"

"The motor pool gate was open"

"We locked that hours ago, there were four people in there to weld it shut"

"Sorry Gerald, there was nobody there when we arrived, just some tools on the floor"

"Dammit. We'll have to secure this gate Claire, I don't know how it will hold compared to the other one though"

"Just do what you can for now. C'mon Max lets get your eye sorted"

"I'll be fine"

"That's an order"

He smirked and followed her, Gerald called for one of the others to bring a welder over as Claire and Max stepped out of the corridor and into the lobby where they waited for the elevator to come back down. As they stood waiting Claire let her head fall against his shoulder for a moment,

"Where were you Max?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you when we get out of here"

She looked up at him and said said seriously,

"When we get out of here i'm gonna need a drink"

He smiled warmly, something he felt like he hadn't done in a long time.

"Then we can talk over drinks, God knows I need one"

They road the elevator in silence, something Max was glad to have again compared to the chaos on the streets, to the third floor which held the cafeteria and was where those who weren't able to help were staying as it was a large hall with plenty of space. As they walked in many of the mammals stopped what they were doing to see who had entered and some of them seemed relieved to see someone in a military uniform enter as if it meant that everything would be over soon. Claire lead him to a large table off to the side which was stacked with white carry cases and called for one of the mammals, a lioness in doctors scrub, to come over. Following her gesture Max sat down on one side as the lioness got to them,

"Kate this is Max, can you take a look at his eye please"

"Sure"

As Kate put on some latex gloves and rummaged through on of the cases Max turned his head towards Claire and said

"I'm telling you Claire I'm fine, you worry too much sometimes. Hey _ow_ "

Kate was dabbing some disinfectant on the wound and it was burning,

"Hold still...That's pretty deep I'm going to have to put some stitches on it. Important question though, were you bitten?"

Max hesitated but Claire answered for him,

"He's immune"

"Immune?"

An exited look appeared on her face

"We need to get you out of the city and to a medical facility as soon as possible then, if you're immune then we could make a cure"

"We've already found one"

"Max?"

"Jenner found out how to stop it, it wont do anything for those already gone but it would stop you catching it or from it advancing any further, that's why Frank and I went searching for Jenner"

"Does the military know? That could be our ticket out of here"

"There's a complication, we're running out of time"

Claire looked Max in the eyes, he had a most dire expression that put her on edge. He took a small voice recorder out of his pocket that had a set of headphones plugged into it.

"We got this from the lab Jenner was in. Don't listen without the headphones"

She took it and put one in and began to play it as Max told Kate to continue with his stitches, Claire turned and took a few steps away before playing the recording. There were a few seconds of silence before she heard a male voice,

"Attention all personnel, the evacuation mission has been suspended, all forces proceed to their designated extraction points immediately, extractions will continue every 15 minutes until 23:00 hours, command out"

It looked like Gerald was right, they had been abandoned to their fate, as she considered whether or not to wait to see if having Jenner would get the military to send help for them a second recording began to play.

"Attention all supervisors, the order to put operation landslide into effect has been issued, all personnel within the target area must evacuate immediately, I repeat, the order to put operation landslide into effect has been issued, all personnel within the target area must evacuate immediately. Operation will commence at 02:30 hours"

She looked at her watch, it was ten passed two now, she pulled the headphone out and turned to Max.

"This is only twenty minutes away, what's operation landslide?"

"I don't know, but if their pulling their high level guys out it only mean something bad for us"

"Gerald knows of a way to get to the Hawken Tunnel that avoids the military blockade a few blocks from here, we need to get everyone together fast"

"we can't get out, the streets are filled with those things"

"You and Frank got through"

"We're two people, how many do you have here?"

"thirty nine"

"There's no way in hell we could all get there in one piece"

"We can't just sit here and do nothing"

The door to the cafeteria swung open and Frank dashed in and over to them with a very serious look on his face,

"We need everyone onto the roof now, there's two choppers coming in 10 minutes to pulls us out but we have to go now they can't wait"

"Claire get everyone moving"

Max grabbed the thread that Kate had been sewing the gash above his eye with and yanked it snapping off what was left. Claire got Kate to usher everyone to the stairwell leading to the roof as Frank grabbed Max by the arm and pulled him out of the room and off to the side, Claire quickly caught up to them as people filled out of the cafeteria and called into her radio,

"Everyone drop what you're doing and get to the roof now we're getting picked up"

Gerald acknowledged her but she got no response from Alex,

"Alex did you copy that?"

"Frank what's going on?"

"Marchenko's sending the last two choppers to get us out, he's been forced out of operational control"

"So who's in charge"

"He doesn't know but that's not important. The government knows they can't contain this so their going to sanitize the city, that's what operation landslide is they aren't risking this getting out"

"Do we have enough time?"

"It's going to be tight as hell"

A loud bang and screeching metal interrupted them, all three of them ran to the mezzanine and looked down to the lobby, a huge dent as large as an elephant had been made in one of the security shutters. Some of the people who had been welding had stopped and were staring at the huge bulge in the metal as a second bang made it even bigger and tore a small hole in the top, Max yelled at the top of his voice to them,

"Get out of there now!"

A third bang tore through the metal as a huge claw swung at one of the closer workers just missing them, and as the claw withdrew a huge horde of puppets began to pore through the large gap flooding the lobby in seconds with infected. Everyone who had a gun began firing on the horde as some of the workers unable to escape screamed in pain as they were caught and pulled into the mass. The blast of a grenade going off in the stairwell nearest the shutters was quickly followed by Gerald appearing in the door well firing his rifle in full auto down the stairs, he turned to run towards them but was jumped on by a small group of infected who came from one of the corridors leading to another wing of the building, the same wing that Alex would have been returning from. Max and Claire tried to shoot them off of Gerald as frank tried to slow the tide coming through the hole but they were biting him all over and they couldn't get a clear shot. Gerald dropped his rifle and grabbed hold of one of the larger infected that had grabbed him as he put a hoof to his chest and charged into the stairwell as he shouted in anger forcing the horde back through the door before a loud and dull thud of several grenades detonating turned the stairwell into red mist. Claire screamed and fired wildly at the remaining infected in the stairwell after seeing Gerald die but was pulled back my Max as more poured over the corpses, he lifted her up and ran to the stairwell on the other side while Frank covered them before turning and firing at them himself only to see Frank wrapping the strap of a satchel to the handrail.

"Frank get over here now!"

"One sec"

A burst of bullets cracked past his head as Max fired the last of the bullets in his magazine, as he slammed a new one in Frank pulled a tab from the bag and ran as fast as he could towards them,

"Go get up there now"

"What did you?"

"Satchel"

"Oh shit"

They ran up the stairs and got to the fourth floor door when a deafening blast tour through the third floor mezzanine and sent a plume of burning smoke up the stairwell singeing some of their fur. They didn't stop and ran hard up the stairs and onto the fifth flour where halfway down the corridor they could see an agent firing a shotgun towards the other stairwell as another yelled at them to hurry up.

"Where's Jenner?"

"Radio Room"

Max burst through the door to the radio room as Claire ran up the last set of stairs to the roof with the two agents. Sat next to the radio in a near catatonic state was Jenner, he had a pistol in his hoof and Shaun was lying dead on the floor with a bullet hole in his chest, his service pistol missing form its holster.

"The hell did you do?"

"He...He..."

Max knocked the gun out of Jenner's Hoof and grabbed him roughly, yanking him to his feat just as he heard a snarl behind him. He spun round just in time to catch Shaun as he jumped to his feat snarling and snapping at him, his eyes a solid yellow. Max kicked his legs out and slammed his head into the radio console before letting go and shooting him point blank in the head.

"Max we need to go now!"

Frank yelled from outside as more gunfire echoed through the building, he waisted no more time and hauled Jenner out of the room and shoved him up the stairs to the other agents before opening fire at a group of infected that had followed them up the stairs.

"Frank"

"One sec"

"Now Frank!"

Frank loaded a grenade into his under barrel launcher and fired it at the giant ZBI shield hanging over the lobby, the blast tore through most of the support cables while the others snapped under its weight sending the heavy metal decoration plummeting to the floor crushing any infected who were under it to paste.

"I don't know if that'll slow em down"

They each pulled out a grenade and lobbed one at each stairwell where they were pouring from before climbing the last few steps onto the roof, the screeching from behind them stopped for a few seconds when the grenades went off but there were so many of them that the reprieve was short lived. They got onto the roof and the door was slammed shut behind them and people started piling anything they could find against the door to stop it from opening as Max, Frank and other agents fired through the small window at the top of the door, arms flailed through the small gap as bullets slammed into them knocking them back only for others to fill the space almost as fast.

Time seemed to drag by before they heard the sweet distinctive sound of helicopter blades cutting through the air and they could just make out the pulsing lights beneath 2 helicopters flying nearby.

"Frank I need another mag"

"Here, its my last one"

He tossed the mag to Max who caught it and slammed it in as he called over to Claire.

"Take this, pop it and wave it so they know where to land"

She ran over to the helipad and lit the flare, it was a bright green and was visible for miles as she waved it over her head and prayed that the helicopters could see her. She stared at them and her heart sank as they went past the building, but then slowly they begun to turn and headed their way. She threw the flare on the ground and ran down the ramp to the crowd of civilians who were huddled with Kate, there had been thirty nine of them but now there were less than twenty. Her fur started to flail around wildly as the strong downdraught from the landing helicopters rotors kicked up anything not bolted down, it was far larger than any helicopter that the ZBI had access to and it barely fit on the landing pad.

As the rear ramp lowered down a crew member waved frantically at them to board as the second helicopter flew overhead in a guard position, Claire hurried everyone along pushing some of those that were hesitating up the ramp herself. She was the last of the group to get on and she dragged Jenner up and handed him to the crew member,

"Are you the last one?"

"No we have more over there"

The crew member called something into their radio and the second helicopter shone a spotlight onto Max's little group before a speaker came one.

"Get aboard now we don't have time, we'll cover you"

The three agents who had been with Max and Frank ran from the door towards the ramp before Frank and Max followed. They were fast and had almost caught up with the agents when the door was smashed open and a horde poured through the door, but they barely made it ten feet before being shredded by the mini gun in the second helicopter that kept firing until the first helicopter started to take off.

Max followed Frank through the helicopter to empty seats next to Claire by the cockpit and strapped in and put on the seats headphones as the helicopter dove until it was just above the roofs of the other buildings, the co-pilot called over the headset,

"It's going to be a bumpy ride hold on"

Frank looked at his watch but it had broken during the fighting,

"What's the time?"

"2:28"

"shit this is going to be close"

The choppers flew the shortest point to the mainland which took them over what was left of the Rhodes bridge, most of it now lay at the bottom of the river with what was left burning as creatures ran amuck through the streets hunting whoever was left.

"Major you should hear this"

The co-pilot flicked some switches and a radio broadcast came in, it was a female voice slowly counting backwards from fifty which was being intermittently called over by other people.

"Fucking hell their early, get this thing going now"

"She's already going as fast as she can"

They were just passing over a corn field that marked the one mile marker outside the city limits when he heard something that made his blood go cold,

" _27, 26, weapon free, 24, 23_ "

"Buckle up and brace yourselves"

Everyone grabbed their harnesses, some were praying while others cried, Max sat calmly holding Claire's paw with a firm grip as she closed her eyes and waited, they were both listening in as well. He felt her grip tighten as the radio continued,

" _17, 16, trigger armed, 14, 13_ "

A small river inlet let the pilots know they were nearly 3 miles from the city.

There was a collective holding of breath as the voice counted the last few seconds.

" _3, 2, 1_ "

A blinding flash illuminated the inside of the helicopter and made it seem like daylight and for a second everything seemed to stop, but as the flash faded it became apparent that something was very wrong as the helicopter began to shudder violently. Frank ripped his headset off as he saw the pilots struggling with the controls, they were trying as hard as they could to save the chopper

"EMP's knocked out the engines"

"Still have hydraulics, got shake in the pedals"

"fuck cant get her started, auto rotate"

"we're too low and heavy"

The pilot yelled back through the cabin,

"Hold on to something!"

Franks gripped the chair hard and closed his eyes, seconds later there was a violent thud as the helicopter hit the ground, he didn't see most of it as something loose flew through the cabin and hit him in the head knocking him out.

* * *

Max blinked a couple of times as he waited for the world to stop spinning and come into focus as he felt pain all over his body, slowly as he grit his teeth against the pain he managed to push the mangled metal and dirt debris off his chest enough for him roll over. The helicopter was completely destroyed and looked like it had been cut in half on impact with chairs and bodies scattered just outside the wreck as the soil it had slammed into had mostly filled the cabin space, the cockpit was completely buried with no sign of the pilots. Pulling himself to his feet he saw the chair where Claire had been sitting was empty, its harness snapped and missing. He looked around in the darkness and saw something glint in the soil, he dropped to his knees and dug at it, which quickly became a fever pace as he recognised it as Claire's prosthetic arm. An eternity went by for him until he dug through enough dirt to pull her out but it was obvious there was nothing he could do for her, she was dead. He held her close to him and whispered over and over how he was sorry he couldn't get her out.

He didn't know how much time had passed but he began to hear something in the cabin, someone struggling. He gently laid Claire's body down and went over to the sound to find Frank buried up to his chest in earth with folded metal covering the rest of his body, the impact had torn his chair from where it was and hurled him to the other end of the wreckage. Max pulled the metal off of Frank and rolled it to the side. Frank had a huge cut running down his face and multiple other cuts over him, not that Max got off any easier as he looked like he had taken a diver head first through a paper shredder. Max quickly dug away at the earth with Frank helping him the best he could,

"Where's...Where's everyone else?"

"Dead, I think. You're the only one i've heard"

"There has to be someone else"

He yelled in agony as Max drag him out from where he was, his legs were broken with one of them having a bone sticking out, Max searched through what gear of his had survived and did the best he could to bind and protect his wounds.

"Wait here, I'll see if I can find anything else"

"Sure, it's not like I can do anything else"

Max worked his way to the back of the cabin and had to crawl through the gap at the back as it was mostly buried, the wreckage was scattered everywhere and he wasn't sure how he or Frank had survived or how anyone else possibly could of. As he stumbled to the section that had snapped off on impact he ducked under what was left of the tail as he looked for a way in but stopped in his tracks as he looked at the sky in the distance. Hanging above Zootopia, illuminated by the moon, was a giant mushroom cloud.

* * *

Authors Note.

I apologise for the severe delay with releasing this. In January my father collapsed at home and was rushed into hospital, after lots of testing they discovered that he has a degenerative condition that affects his nerves that has meant that my mother and I have had to give him 24 hour care for the last few months until the doctors could find something that could alleviate his symptoms that he wasn't allergic too or triggered his already sever asthma. This obviously has left me with not time to do any writing with me working full time as well. Thankfully they have found something that slows down the disease and has meant that he can live a more normal life for now which has given me back some of my time.

On a happier note this story will continue with a new arc starting next chapter but as I am sure you understand I wont be able to give a structured release schedule and so they will be up as and when I finish them. Hope you enjoy.

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AN2

Extremely sorry about the delay to the story, things have been rather hectic lately between looking after my father and being trained for a promotion in work but i think i have things organised now and i'm working on getting the next chapter out in a week or two. Just didn't want everyone to think i'd dropped the story is all.


	36. (Arc 3) Chapter 0 Prologue

The piercing wail of a distant air raid siren mixed with alarms and an almost constant barrage of gunfire and explosions turned the once extremely busy, but calm, Defence Ministry in the heart of the Capital into a hell on earth with panicked civilians and military personnel trying to get as far away from the fighting as fast as possible. Standing at the doorway to the central stairwell was lion wearing an Admirals uniform, he along with another soldier waved and called out to anyone they could see as they ushered a large number of terrified mammals who had sought shelter with the military up the stairs,

"Everybody to the roof now, hurry up go, go now"

Smoke poured past the window as the intense fighting outside raged on, Thirin screeches could be heard getting louder as the radio chatter showed signs of the huge compound beginning to fall. As they urged the crowd to hurry up the stairs to the evacuation helicopters the Admiral heard someone calling out.

"Sir! Admiral Goldmane!"

An antelope pushed through everyone and stopped next to the Admiral, he was carrying a large metal case that was cuffed to his wrist.

"Simon" Goldmane looked past him into the crowd for a moment but couldn't see who he was looking for. "Simon where's Bill?"

"He's in the Operations room, he wont leave"

"Wont leave? Does he not know what's happening?"

"I don't know sir, he's looking through the computer network for something, I couldn't wait with the case"

"You did good son, get to the roof and tell them to send a chopper for us, I'll get Bill"

"But sir we need you for the war effort"

"All you need is that case, now get out of here, both of you, this place wont last much longer"

Goldmane forced his way against the flow of the crowd and in the direction of the operations room in Wing B that was adjacent to theirs.

The building shook violently as a massive explosion on one of the lower levels almost knocked him off his feet, he quickly looked out of the window and could see a hole at least three stories tall in C wing with smoke billowing out of it and what looked like hundreds of misshapen creatures that used to be mammals clambering inside the building, he was running very short on time. Without any more hesitation he ran through the corridors as fast as he could, with full evacuation of the facility underway most of the doors had automatically opened which made it faster for him to navigate through the building, but he was also acutely aware that it would also speed up the spread of Thirin throughout the facility.

He careered round a corner and through the open door to the control room as a group of soldiers at the other end of the corridor defended a makeshift barricade against the faster Thirin that had already made it to their floor. The control room was a mess with everyone having abandoned the place in a hurry, at the front row of the step tiered platforms with his back to him was another lion furiously typing away. Goldmane yelled out to him as he dashed towards him,

"Bill what the hell are you doing we have to go now!"

"I can't Chuck"

"Why the hell not"

He gestured to the large cinema sized monitor at the front of the room showing CCTV footage from across the city, the entire place was a complete warzone with fighting across the entire city that appeared heavily in the Thirin's favour.

"We've lost the city, we need to evac now they're in the building for fuck sake"

"That's why I can't leave. I'm the last Camarilla Commander on site, I have to send everything and wipe the servers so the enemy can't get it"

"But we have the case, Simon is getting evacuated now"

"The contents of that case are useless without the data."

Bill pulled a lanyard from around his neck with a keycard attached and pushed it into Chucks paw as he stared at Chuck with a determined look,

"You're gonna need this at the new site, you're in charge now, I'll follow when I can"

Chuck stared at it for a moment before putting it around his neck. The two had been inseparable through their time in the military and even though they didn't always see eye to eye he would never entertain the idea of leaving him behind, but the past week had been anything but normal for anybody. Before Bill turned back to the computer Chuck grabbed him and hugged him tightly,

"You get your ass out of here in one piece, you hear me"

"I'll try, good luck to you"

Chuck let him go and took a few steps backwards before turning and running out of the room, the doors closing remotely behind him as a the barricade the soldiers had been defending collapsed under the tide of Thirin attacking it. The soldiers were eviscerated in the blink of an eye, their corpses giving just enough of a distraction for Chuck to run the few feet across the corridor and into the stairwell heading to the B wing roof as fast as his legs could carry him. He had always kept his fitness up even though he hadn't been a front line soldier for a long time but his leg muscles were starting to burn as he ran the four flights up, he didn't slow down at all at the top and barged through the door out into the downdraught of a large chopper that had landed on the roof, the smell of the fires, propellant, and burning flesh was overwhelming as he dove into the open side door and yelled past the gunner to the pilot,

"Get us in the air now they're right behind us!"

The heavy chopper lumbered into the air as a large Thirin charged through the roof entrance, the gunner opened fire at it hitting it in the legs, preventing it from leaping onto the chopper as others had been seen to do, causing it to stumble and fall off the roof as a large number of former mammals, some of them in soldiers uniforms, poured through the door, but the chopper was far enough away from them now.

The chopper rose high above the skyline as it flew over the capital. What once stood as a beacon and testament to the country now lay in ruins. The gunner handed Chuck a headset and he put it on as he stared for a moment at the keycard and hoped Bill could somehow make it out alive. His thoughts were interrupted by the pilot calling to him.

"Admiral, what's left of high command is rendezvousing on the Nimitz off shore sir, we'll be there"

"We're not going"

"Sir?"

"If we're to survive this war then we have to meet that case. Just head south, I'll give you instructions en route"

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Author Note

Well i'm back, life has been extremely busy and I will admit i have been feeling extremely lazy in what little spare time I have had, but now i'm back and will hopefully not leave it as long between updates this time. For now this is just a teaser, more coming soon.


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